College Freshman Beliefs About Studying and Learning Mathematics: Results from a Summer Engineering Calculus Bridge Program Conference Paper uri icon

abstract

  • American Society for Engineering Education, 2017. Many incoming college freshman struggle with learning to study and prepare for college examinations in mathematics. High performing high school students often easily succeeded in their mathematics courses while spending minimal time studying the subject. The strategies they used do not always transfer well to the university environment, and they must learn to prepare for assessments over larger amounts of material in a shorter time period. A bridge program was implemented to support incoming freshmen whose mathematics understanding and skills were weak, based on their Mathematics Placement Exam (MPE). Surveys were conducted each week of the three-week intervention to determine student beliefs about what study strategies they believed served them well in high school mathematics, what strategies they expected to use in college, and how much time they anticipated spending on their mathematics studies in the bridge program and in college calculus courses. Students spent 36 hours during the 3-week period in small groups with an online tutor. In addition, they had online practice quizzes, instructional videos, and an online textbook. They were given the MPE again at the end of the program. If they increased their scores to meet the cut score of 22 out 33 correct, they were permitted to enroll in engineering calculus I. This study examines their responses to the surveys during the bridge program and their grades, including any correlations that exist among the variables.

name of conference

  • 2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings

published proceedings

  • 2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings

author list (cited authors)

  • Nite, S., Allen, G. D., Bicer, A., Morgan, J., Warren, V., & Barroso, L.

citation count

  • 0

complete list of authors

  • Nite, Sandra||Allen, G Donald||Bicer, Ali||Morgan, Jim||Warren, Vanessa||Barroso, Luciana

publication date

  • June 2017