Statistics PhD Proposal with Elijah Meyer (Dept. of Mathematical Sciences, MSU)

03/25/2021  9:00 am   WebEx Presentation

Abstract:  

Recommendations for teaching mathematics and statistics encourage educators, including graduate student instructors (GSIs), to use active learning teaching techniques that meaningfully engage their students in the material (Johnson, 2019). GSIs serve as the primary instructors of several introductory courses in the mathematical sciences, playing an important role in undergraduate education (Justice, 2020; Speer et al., 2005). However, GSIs often come into their teaching positions with little to no experience teaching, a lack of pedagogical content knowledge, and beliefs about teaching that are unaligned with current recommendations (e.g., Wood et al., 2018), making it difficult for them to use active learning (Justice, 2020; Turnquist, 2019). Despite the important role GSIs play in teaching undergraduate mathematical sciences courses, little is known about how and why GSIs use active learning in their courses.

We set out to explore multiple aspects for understanding how and why GSIs use active learning. In the first study, we researched how GSIs understand, feel, and use active learning in their classroom. In the second study, we propose to develop a new research instrument for measuring GSIs’ motivations for using active learning techniques to teach statistics. Finally, we plan to investigate relationships between a statistics GSI’s beliefs about how students learn statistics and their types of motivation to use active learning when teaching statistics. By providing a more holistic understanding about GSIs and their use of active learning, our research will help inform the future development and support of GSIs.

 

Johnson, E. (2019). Undergraduate Mathematics Instruction: Not as Bad as You’d Think? In Diane

Smith(ED.),Levers for Change: An Assessment of Progress on Changing STEM Education. pp. 100-

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Justice, N. (2020). Preparing graduate students to teach statistics: A review of research and ten practical

recommendations. Journal of Statistics Education, 28(3), 334–343.

doi:10.1080/10691898.2020.1841590

 

Speer, N., Gutmann, T., & Murphy, T. J. (2005). Mathematics teaching assistant preparation and

development. College Teaching, 53(2), 75–80. https://doi.org/10.3200/CTCH.53.2.75-80

 

Turnquist, A. (2019) What Mathematics Graduate Teaching Assistants Value in a Professional

Development Programs, unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, The University of Arizona, Dept. of

Mathematics available at https://repository.arizona.edu/handle/10150/636921

 

Wood, B. L., Mocko, M., Everson, M., Horton, N. J., & Velleman, P. (2018). Updated guidelines, updated

curriculum: The gaise college report and introductory statistics for the modern student.

CHANCE, 31(2), 53–59. doi:10.1080/09332480.2018.1467642