Carranza, Antonio Guadalupe (2015-05). Examining the Success of Students in Developmental Mathematic Courses in a Mostly Hispanic Border Town Community College. Doctoral Dissertation.
Thesis
A random sample of 200 Hispanic/Latino students from a predominately Hispanic/Latino South Texas community college was used to determine if the implementation of MyMathLab had a positive effect on students' academic grade performance. The purpose of this study was to explore whether a web-based technology, MyMathLab, made a difference in student success in both a developmental mathematics course and a subsequent College Algebra course. Additionally, this study examined whether the effect differs by instructors' characteristics contributing to successes or failures of students in developmental mathematics courses. Student success in developmental mathematics courses was measured by pre and post MyMathLab tests in addition to grade distributions from 2001 and 2005 (before MyMathLab) across the two developmental courses and a college algebra course and the implementation of MyMathLab between 2008-2012 to determine if using MyMathLab had an impact on student success in two developmental courses and an early algebra course. Also, the instructors completed two surveys. The Mathematics Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument (MTEBI) and Instructors Educational Philosophies (IEP). The survey questions were compared to the results to determine if the instructors' characteristics had an impact on student's achievement in developmental courses enhanced by MyMathLab. The overall findings of the study suggests that with the implementation of MyMathLab taken on average the typical student was able to increase their academic performance in the developmental mathematic courses (Math0375, Math0376) and college algebra course (Math1314). The PTE overall findings suggest that mathematic instructors were uncertain if they had the ability to teach effectively in the classroom. The TOE represented mathematics instructors were uncertain if they effectively taught students to succeed in college and were uncertain if they had a positive effect on students learning. The IEP overall findings suggest that mathematics instructors' personal teaching efficacy was a more learner-center approach rather than a teacher-center approach.
