Student Attributes for Math Success

March 2, 2012 Are You Gritty Enough For College? Why do some students drop out of college, while others persist? Researchers think it may have something to do with a person's level of "grit" and are trying to figure out whether this trait can be taught to others.

Here's a link to an article from Duckworth about her research on grit: http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~duckwort/images/Grit%20JPSP.pdf and here's a link to the 8- and 12-item versions of the scales: http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~duckwort/gritscale.htm

precollege math redesign

What's "Washington State Community College" in the list of participating institutions?

from Peg Balachowski

Here's a description of one of the commercial tools currently available allegedly addressing (in a generic way) psychosocial attributes related to learning readiness. I doubt this is something we'd be interested in using but it's interesting to compare the conceptual framework to the other approaches we've been reviewing...

Khan Academy critique addresses some myths about math learning.

Thanks for sharing this posting; I've been saying essentially the same thing ever since I first saw the KA videos, and especially after it became the next big thing to save math education. There are certainly pragmatic advantages to students having access to concise, reasonably clear video explanations of discrete math topics and procedures (they can stop and start them whenever they want, view them multiple times, etc.), but they definitely function within (and reinforce) the dominant paradigm of what math is and what it means to learn math. KA is designed to help students survive in the current status quo rather than attempting to change that status quo in any significant way (and presumably it does help some students, although I haven't seen any evidence on that point). Where it might be able to play a role in changing current practice is if teachers were to use it, or other resources like it, to "invert" the traditional model so that students are using online resources like KA outside of class for the procedural skills and teachers are using class time to focus on deeper conceptual understanding through a variety of approaches including collaborative group work...

I definitely agree with the premise of the article, but I do not agree with the statements made towards Khan Academy or other multimedia instruction. Is the current curriculum too focused on procedures, algorithms, and rote memorization? Of course! Is direct instruction incredibly overused (with loads of research pointing towards a student-centered learning environment)? Yep. But the problem has nothing to do with Khan or multimedia. I don't see the sense in tearing down innovations in math education. My opinion is that the lack of innovation is exactly the problem with our curriculum and pedagogy. In a more perfect world, where math curriculum is as deep as it is wide, procedures, skills, and memorization will still have a role (albeit, a much smaller role). Multimedia can relieve instructors the "necessity" of offering in-class models of these algorithms and skills. In fact, with videos, students can be offered many alternative methods and algorithms. Allowing them choice. I see multimedia as a way of reengaging students in their own math education. We currently offer students the resource of a textbook that (usually) offers only one method of solving, using language almost indistinguishable to students. Math instructors realize this issue and see it their job to offer better explanations and examples. My point is this: If an instructor was aware that several superb, clear videos were available to students on a certain algorithm, what would that instructor be compelled to discuss during class time? I would hope they wouldn't bore students with another 50mins+ of the same thing, but instead use their time together to engage students in real discussions and activities focused on the students' conceptions and the underlying mathematics in the procedures.

Check out David Yeager's 30 minute video on "Student Success and Productive Persistence"--a nice summary of his research, and obviously related to "productive struggle" (maybe a more positive way of framing it for students, actually...I also like his focus on teaching as a "cultural activity" and his notion that the quality of learning opportunities depends on a) deliberate practice (time on task) and b) making explicit the relationships between and among key concepts/ideas (and between problems/procedures and concepts)...

Here's a useful update to and summary of this work from the January 2011 Statway gathering: http://207.62.63.167/departments/mathematics/statway_talk.pdf

Much broader than our focus but worth digging into a little as there are some useful and relevant resources included--I'm particularly intrigued by the 4-week course on college readiness (built around Conley's model) being implemented by San Diego CC district with early college high-schoolers...

Very interesting article (with some cool links and sidebars) about ways to build students' capacities to understand patterns and apply them to new problem situations, both in math and in other settings...Not sure it's necessarily related to attributes per se but it's fascinating work!

Anyone seen this book? It was recommended by a group of EWU math folks who at our statewide conference recently presented a session entitled "Strategies for Improving Students' Motivation and Learning in Developmental and First College Math Courses": you can see a brief blurb about the session at the conference web page: http://www.sbctc.edu/college/_e-assesstlconfsessions.aspx

Very cool. Peg has recently purchased this book (at a very reasonable price I might add!) and it seems to be a perfect resource for our work. We are thinking about purchasing several copies for the department. I have contacted Jane Lane and Jackie Coomes about this work and will hopefully be able to glean some brilliance from their work.

That's good to know, Mike--I'll see if we can get some more copies to make available at the RPM Institute for other folks who might be interested...And I was planning to follow up with Jane and Jackie but you beat me to it--did you send them our plans to see if they had any suggestions or might want to get involved somehow?

And here's a direct link to a brief survey on emotional regulation developed by James Gross and Oliver John: http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~johnlab/pdfs/ERQ.pdf

A brief description of some other work focused on the "productive struggle" or "productive persistence" issue...

3 of 3 from Lisa Brown: this paper is from Carlton Fong of the Dana Center and Rose Asera (formerly with Carnegie Foundation)--I think I've shared the link on the RPM wiki before but I hadn't looked at it in a while...

2 of 3--focus here is on urban high schools but Lisa thought it might still have some relevance (she suggests chapters 1 and 2)...

Lisa Brown from the Dana Center sent a copy of this article to me in response to my request for more in-depth "white paper" material around the attributes/AYD psychosocial issues...2 more links to follow...

Jeff Cohen was referenced in David Yeager's Carnegie Statway video on "productive persistence"--here's a piece from Jeff directed to his students...

That's great, Peg--glad you found it helpful! As I reviewed it I was wondering if there would be ways to create opportunities for students to experience/practice these tips in a hands-on way rather than just being handed the list, and to what extent it would be worth doing that...?

I'm hoping that the Practitioner Group will see this and the 8 Keys... article and think of ways to incorporate this discussion early on.