ERIC Number: EJ1063543
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2005-Jul
Pages: 12
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1540-4595
EISSN: N/A
Pick a Number ... Any Number?
Simons, Jacob V., Jr.; Price, Barbara A.
Decision Sciences Journal of Innovative Education, v3 n2 p295-306 Jul 2005
A recent classroom revelation caused us to reconsider the adequacy of the instructions offered in our textbooks for one of our most elementary quantitative methods. Specifically, we found that many students were mystified concerning how to pick an initial objective function value when plotting an isoprofit line in order to graphically solve a linear programming problem. We observed that this seemingly insignificant issue was causing a surprising amount of wasted time, confusion, and even anxiety. Our experience indicated that students do not necessarily possess any consistent intuition for choosing an appropriate initial value. We confirmed this perception through informal experimentation. We reviewed several textbooks and found that most simply do not bother to address this issue. Therefore, we devised a simple, comprehensible method which we have taught our students to resolve or avoid this problem. Although we quickly found the method to be helpful for many students, we conducted an experiment to formally measure its effect.
Descriptors: Teaching Methods, Textbooks, Statistical Analysis, Textbook Content, Mathematics Skills, Mathematical Concepts
Wiley-Blackwell. 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148. Tel: 800-835-6770; Tel: 781-388-8598; Fax: 781-388-8232; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A