Current Search:  Academic achievement--Florida--Palm Beach County (x)

View All Items

  • CSV Spreadsheet
(1 - 2 of 2)
Academic performance and demographic variables in predicting success in college algebra and graduation rates in an urban multi-campus community college
Title
Academic performance and demographic variables in predicting success in college algebra and graduation rates in an urban multi-campus community college.
Creator
Pedersen, Ginger Lee., Florida Atlantic University, Decker, Larry E.
Abstract/Description
The purpose of this study was to develop a model to predict success in college algebra and in Associate in Arts graduation, and to examine the relationship between placing in one or more developmental education courses and Associate in Arts graduation. The study was conducted at a large urban community college in Palm Beach County, Florida with 1,142 first-time-in-college students who took the College Placement Test (CPT) as their entrance examination. The study was designed to determine...
Show moreThe purpose of this study was to develop a model to predict success in college algebra and in Associate in Arts graduation, and to examine the relationship between placing in one or more developmental education courses and Associate in Arts graduation. The study was conducted at a large urban community college in Palm Beach County, Florida with 1,142 first-time-in-college students who took the College Placement Test (CPT) as their entrance examination. The study was designed to determine whether students' gender, age, ethnicity, grade point average (GPA), English language proficiency, nontraditional status, placement scores and number of developmental courses could predict a students' success in college algebra and graduating with the Associate in Arts degree, and how placing in one or more developmental course was correlated with graduating with the Associate in Arts degree. Three research hypotheses were developed to determine any significant predictive ability among the variables studied. Hypotheses 1 and 2 used discriminant analysis to determine the predicative ability of identified variables and hypothesis 3 used a Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient to assess the relationship of placing into one or more developmental courses on graduating with the Associate in Arts degree. All hypotheses were tested at the .05 level of significance. The results of the study indicated that for hypothesis 1 the variables of GPA, number of developmental courses, level of mathematics courses and mathematics placement score were all significant predictors. For hypothesis 2, the variables of GPA, placement scores in reading and writing, and the number of developmental courses were all significant predictors. For hypothesis 3, the number of developmental courses that a student tested into did have a significant relationship with the student's receiving an Associate in Arts degree. The results are discussed in relation to ensuring that students are better prepared for college-level work by a series of recommendations relating to collaborative efforts between community colleges and local high school districts. In addition, recommendations are made to re-align the developmental mathematics curriculum to effectively prepare students for subsequent college-level mathematics courses.
Show less
Date Issued
2004
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FADT12083
Subject Headings
Community colleges--Florida--Palm Beach County--Sociological aspects, Community college students--Florida--Palm Beach County--Statistics, Academic achievement--Florida--Palm Beach County, Postsecondary education--Research--Florida--Palm Beach County, Algebra
Format
Document (PDF)
Effects of teaching mathematics to learning style perceptual preference on academic achievement of seventh-grade middle school students
Title
Effects of teaching mathematics to learning style perceptual preference on academic achievement of seventh-grade middle school students.
Creator
Colarulli, Rosemary, Florida Atlantic University, Kerensky, Vasil M.
Abstract/Description
Teaching methods that are effective with some students, fail with other students, because students perceive and process information differently. The personal preference by which one perceives and processes new material is called one's learning style. Using the Dunn and Dunn Learning Style Inventory assessment instrument, the learning style perceptual preference of 262 seventh grade students from a large, urban, middle school in southeast Florida were identified. This research investigated the...
Show moreTeaching methods that are effective with some students, fail with other students, because students perceive and process information differently. The personal preference by which one perceives and processes new material is called one's learning style. Using the Dunn and Dunn Learning Style Inventory assessment instrument, the learning style perceptual preference of 262 seventh grade students from a large, urban, middle school in southeast Florida were identified. This research investigated the effects of teaching mathematics to the preferred perceptual preference of these students in terms of academic achievement. Four teachers were trained in the Dunn and Dunn learning style teaching model to acquaint them with the experimental treatment used in this study. A pretest-posttest design was used to observe the mean gain in achievement scores on a 25-element assessment between students taught using a traditional teaching format and those taught in the learning style treatment approach. All students in the experimental group were first introduced to new mathematics material with a global story and taught in their primary learning style perceptual preference: (a) auditory, (b) tactile, (c) kinesthetic, or (d) visual. The material was reinforced through their secondary preference and a creative, student-constructed project was shared with the classmates. Several two-way factorial analyses of variance were used to study the treatment effect on the dependent variable. Neither the main effect for treatment nor the interactions between treatment and demographic variables (race, gender, learning styles) were significant at the.05 level. Within the context of this study, teaching through a student's perceptual learning style preference does not appear to be significantly more effective than teaching in a traditional manner.
Show less
Date Issued
1998
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/12552
Subject Headings
Learning, Psychology of
Format
Document (PDF)