4 minute read
Counting on Student Success
New initiatives change the structure of how mathematics is taught at UTSA
By Robert Salinas
The Department of Mathematics is transitioning to an evidence-based approach of optimal instruction. The department looked at patterns taken from UTSA student data, including every single student and course for the past 10 years. This data showed the department what direction to take to generate the highest rates of success for students by pinpointing what works and what does not.
Research demonstrates that mathematics is the single largest point of failure for most university students. Students who fail or have difficulty passing math courses are substantially more likely to drop out or change majors. The inverse is also true: Students who are successful in foundational math courses are most likely to graduate in any given major. Ultimately, mathematics is the driver for student degree completion, which has repeatedly been shown to improve students’ employment prospects and increase their earning potential. A weekly earnings summary issued by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in October showed that full-time workers holding at least a bachelor’s degree earned an average of $664 more per week than high school graduates without a college degree.
The value of mathematics is tied not only to career success—it can substantially improve everyday life and mental wellness. Math is used when comparing prices at a store, calculating a tip, and budgeting our finances. Math also makes cooking easier when converting units or changing a recipe serving amount.
Dr. Juan Gutiérrez, chair of the Department of Mathematics, has begun the process of rolling out new initiatives aimed at creating an environment more conducive to success in math and, by extension, success in all other subjects and degree completion. These initiatives can be categorized as the vertical alignment of the curriculum and course coordination.
“Subject matter in one course must be sufficient and wellarticulated to the subject that a student will face in the proceeding courses,” Gutiérrez said. “The goal is for all math courses in the department to have a coherent sequence of topics. This is needed to provide students with a uniform and predictable set of skills by guaranteeing coherent communication across multiple instructors of the same course, with material taught at similar pacing, and similar length and difficulty of homework and exams. This creates an environment conducive to optimal learning that benefits all students.”
Mathematics graduate student Samuel Roberts has seen the negative results of improper math course sequencing during his tutoring sessions with fellow students. “It’s a recipe for disaster,” Roberts said. “You’re missing foundational information, which makes it hard. Students must have fundamental understanding of set concepts before they move on to be successful.”
The department plans to create homogeneity in student resources through online material such as video tutorials and problem walkthroughs, lecture slides, and testing services. Many students are already familiar with these formats, but with numerous vendors offering these services, the challenge is selecting the best quality and uniformity for students that they can follow throughout the entire mathematics portion of their academic career. Other considerations include pairing WeBWorK, an online homework and exam delivery system, with OpenStax, which is a peer-reviewed, free digital textbook database. With the sudden switch to almost complete remote learning, there has been a sharp increase in the need for online resources, introducing an immediate necessity to identify and distribute cohesive resources.
Online courses and supplementary material offer additional benefits to students who are struggling in their math courses. Research shows that the students who find math most difficult may not have been exposed to higher levels of math or had adequate resources as they progressed through high school. These students are not entering university shoulder-to-shoulder with their peers in terms of knowledge and skillset, and they must absorb material at a faster pace to keep up. For these students, online material may help fill in those gaps.
While mathematics is not the only force that shapes a student’s success, it is the largest—25% of all first-year credit hours are in mathematics courses, and all UTSA majors use mathematics in some capacity. Dr. Priya Prasad, associate professor in the Department of Mathematics, is heavily involved in the department’s initiatives and sees mathematics as a skill for more than just STEM majors. Noting the pervasive effect of the coronavirus pandemic on our everyday lives, Prasad says all students can benefit from an improved understanding of mathematical concepts.
“We are living through a time where we are seeing that having a basic understanding of mathematics and statistics is extremely important, such as understanding pandemic models to understand coronavirus rates and make the best decisions for you and your family,” she said.
