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Staff Photo by Matt Fields-Johnson Freshman Amanda Wofford and junior Rich vande Bovenleamp take notes during a college algebra class at the UTC Engineering Math and Computer Sciences Building.
Math classes have become a major headache and turnoff for students at UTC, a recent survey shows.
So administrators are looking at blowing up the school's traditional model for teaching math.
"(Students) described 'bad math teachers' and having to take remedial math courses over and over again," according to a study of student attitudes and behaviors at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. "One student said she liked math, but wouldn't major in anything related to math so that she could avoid UTC's math department."
In hopes of addressing concerns over the math curriculum at UTC, administrators have set aside $360,000 to build a new interactive math lab that eventually could replace lecture-style math classes.
"We want to improve student success in math," said UTC Provost Phil Oldham. "This will improve graduation rates."
The math lab, also being called a math mall, is being modeled on similar labs at the University of Alabama, Mississippi State University and Virginia Tech. Interactive math curriculum is becoming the standard on many college campuses as schools try to make math less of a student fear, Dr. Oldham said.
Many students begin their four-year degree program unprepared for college-level math, he said. Fifty percent of incoming freshmen this fall were required to take remedial courses, which the UTC study shows many students find frustrating.
Dr. Oldham, who helped bring a math lab to Mississippi State before he came to UTC, said the outcomes from such labs are impressive. Overall, there is a 30 percent improvement in the success rate for college algebra, he said.
Cleveland State Community College implemented an interactive math curriculum last year and has seen vast improvement in student performance in developmental math, officials said.
The passing rate in math at Cleveland State jumped from 62 percent to 71 percent once students began to use the math lab, said Cleveland State President Carl Hite.
"If students don't get past the math they don't get a college degree," he said. "Our retention rate has increased significantly because of the new approach to math."
Jim Catanzaro, president of Chattanooga State Community College, said his school is looking at making similar changes in math education.
UTC officials now are looking for an appropriate campus location for the math mall, and Dr. Oldham said it should be up and running by next fall.
While the new curriculum isn't developed, students using the math mall will be required to spend there, working through problems, he said, and tutors will be available to assist every step of the way. He said he was unsure how many lecture-style math classes will continue under the new math curriculum.
"It is really a creative way of getting students to do math," Dr. Oldham said. "Math, like a lot of subjects, you learn by doing. You don't learn it by sitting and listening about math."
Joan Garrett has been a staff writer for the Times Free Press since August 2007. Before becoming a general assignment writer for the paper, she wrote about business, higher education and the court systems. She grew up the oldest of five sisters near Birmingham, Ala., and graduated with a master's and bachelor's degrees in journalism from the University of Alabama. Before landing her first full-time job as a reporter at the Times Free Press, she ...
Given the low math scores in our high schools (check Hixson High School), maybe the math education guru's can implement these techniques at the secondary school level to reduce the need for remedial math classes.
Followup: The web site listed below gives an excellent appraisal of the current "math wars". http://www.city-journal.org/2009/eon1113ss.html
Sandy really doesn't understand constructivism, but then many of the educators she is talking about probably don't either. It isn't that educator's try not to "transfer" their knowledge and kids "create their own" knowledge. It is that young children (and we are talking about early childhood here when we are talking about constructivist approaches) learn about number by having hands-on real experiences, not by hearing someone talk about numbers. Young children learn better by doing, they are active learners. They aren't creating "their own" ideas about numbers as much as they are figuring out numbers and constructing an understanding of numbers themselves. If you want to teach a kindergartner to add give them stuff to add, rather than telling them that 1 plus 1 is two, etc. That is a really major distinction there, but I'm not sure a lot of people get the point.
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