Quantitative Literacy in the Affective Domain: Computational Geology Students’ Reactions to Devlin’s The Math Instinct

Abstract

Building on suggestions from alumni from a recent interview project, students in Computational Geology at the University of South Florida were tasked with reading a popular non-fiction book on mathematics and writing about the book and their feelings about math. The book, The Math Instinct by Keith Devlin, was chosen because we believed it would give the students something interesting to write about and not because we had any expectations in particular about what it might reveal about or do for their math anxiety. The nature of the responses received from the students led to the performance of a post-hoc study on the emotional affect of math in the students' lives and how it changed as they proceeded through the book and reflected back on it at the end. Of the 28 students in the fall 2016 section of the course, 25 had an improved or slightly improved attitude toward math by the end of the semester. The assignment was more successful than we could anticipate at generating thought and getting students to communicate about math -an integral component of quantitative literacy. Although the limited size and post hoc nature of the study make it difficult to generalize, the results are promising and invite further use of the assignment in the course.

The ability of quantitative literacy of pre-service biology students

“…It is aligned with other result conducted for students in other universities who stated that one of factors that causing low quantitative literacy is from characteristic of subjects and the lack of adequate facilities (Nuraeni, et al, 2010) Plant anatomy course tend to lead to qualitative materials, so it is not possible for students to collect data and analyse quantitative data. Whereas all discipline should have led to quantitative science in 21 st century because the demans of students to have numerical and technology skills have to be introduce in learning process (Ricchezza & Vacher, 2017). Another reason where lack of quantitative literacy of students is the absence of teaching materials that lead to quantitative data.…”

Relationships and Gender Differences in Math Anxiety, Math Self-Efficacy, Geoscience Self-Efficacy, and Geoscience Interest in Introductory Geoscience Students

“…While geoscience education researchers have long recognized the importance of affective variables in student learning [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18], the role of math attitudes in geoscience learning has, historically, been overlooked. This project provides initial evidence for the relationship between math attitudes and geoscience attitudes.…”

“…The role that quantitative skills play in students' success in introductory geoscience courses has been the focus of many studies since the beginning of this century (e.g., [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]). Additionally, in the past decade and a half, many geoscience-discipline-based education researchers have focused on the affective domain as an important aspect of teaching and learning [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18]. However, studies that explore the development of interest and self-efficacy in geoscience have generally focused on the role of field and research experiences [19][20][21][22][23], with little attention paid to the role of math attitudes in student success.…”

Quantitative Literacy in the Core Curriculum of Hood College: Chapter II, Outcomes and Assessment

“…If we decide that we want to try to measure changes in student attitudes after taking one QL course, we will undoubtedly use a different instrument. A recent discussion on the National Numeracy Network Listserv has given us some good ideas for resources and rubrics regarding the affective dimensions of QR, including the Dartmouth College Mathematics Across the Curriculum Survey (similar to our survey but more comprehensive), the Select Numeracy Scale Average Change in Score by Question Number (Fagerlin et al 2007), and a student writing assignment described in a note in this journal (Ricchezza and Vacher 2017).…”