ERIC Number: EJ1069548
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2015
Pages: 12
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1051-1970
EISSN: N/A
Student and Instructor-Centered Approaches to Teaching Precalculus
Davis, Tara C.; Lu', Hùng
PRIMUS, v25 n6 p495-506 2015
This paper describes the results of a two-semester-long study of the effects of student-centered instruction on Precalculus courses. We also describe our teaching approaches centering around students, which include a mixture of lectures, student presentations, group work, discussion, and guided investigations. Students were taught with either the traditional, and still dominant, lecture-based, instructor-centered teaching methods, or with the collaborative student-centered methods. We found that the average over all students was higher on quizzes when they were taught with student-centered methods. Moreover, the students in the lower quantiles scored significantly higher than their counterparts in the traditional lecture-based classrooms. This suggests that not only are student-centered approaches more effective than instructor-centered approaches, but that they are particularly helpful to those students who are struggling with Precalculus.
Descriptors: Calculus, Mathematics Instruction, Learner Controlled Instruction, Teaching Methods, Lecture Method, Public Speaking, Group Activities, Discussion (Teaching Technique), Cooperative Learning, Tests, Scores, Comparative Analysis, College Mathematics, Hypothesis Testing, Conventional Instruction, Statistical Analysis
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Hawaii
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A