RTMUS

Welcome to the Research on Teaching Mathematics in Undergraduate Settings research group @ UM

Currently, RTMUS (/ahr-tee-mus/) has three active research projects:

Mathematics for Relationality, Responsibility, Respect, and Reciprocity (M4RS (/mars/, 2021-2022)

Funded by the Office of Educational Outreach at the University of Michigan, we are creating a space for faculty teaching mathematics to Indigenous students at Tribal and community colleges to have conversations and discussions about culturally sustaining mathematics education and social justice for Indigenous communities. The project provides seeds for initiating a larger network of faculty who teach across the various Indigenous nations in the United States.

Undergraduate Teaching in Mathematics with Open Software and Textbooks (UTMOST2, 2016-2018, UTMOST 3, 2018-2022)

Funded by the National Science Foundation, in this collaborative project between the American Institute of Mathematics, Stephen F. Austin State University, the University of Colorado Boulder, and the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor we seek to lay the groundwork for understanding the affordances and challenges of developing and using open source learning platforms in the teaching and learning of undergraduate mathematics. We want to investigate two questions: How do students and instructors use textbooks? and How can we develop textbooks that will improve teaching and learning?

Validating Measures of Quality Instruction: AI@CC 2.0 (2020-2023)

Funded by the National Science Foundation, in this collaborative project between Maricopa Community College System, University of Minnesota, and Oregon State University, we seek to develop an instrument to assess mathematical knowledge for teaching college algebra at community colleges; to revise EQIPM to include aspects of diversity, equity, and inclusion; and to validate these measures in the college algebra community context.

CONCLUDED RESEARCH PROJECTS

Algebra Instruction at Community Colleges (AI@CC): An Exploration of its Relationship with Student Success (2016-2019)

Funded by the National Science Foundation, in this collaborative project between Maricopa Community College System, the University of Minnesota, and the University of Michigan, we seek to understand the conditions under which instruction in two key algebra courses, intermediate algebra and college algebra, taught at large community colleges can be associated with student learning and success. We plan to use the results of this study to describe the affordances and challenges of using community college classroom data to inform the design of faculty development programs for algebra instruction at community colleges.

Transitioning Learners to Calculus in Community Colleges (TLC3, 2016-2018)

Funded by the National Science Foundation, in this collaborative project between Highline College, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, San Diego State University, and the University of Michigan, we seek to transform institutional approaches to identifying and remedying barriers that impede student progress to and through Calculus II in community colleges, focusing on historically underserved students, particularly underrepresented racial minority (URM) students.

Sustainable Instructor Training for Inquiry-Based Learning (2015-2017)

This project sought to increase, in a sustainable way, enrollments in IBL courses at the University of Michigan from 400 to over 3,600 over a three-year period. This project laid the foundation for a defining professional training and support for faculty as they implement IBL in Linear Algebra and Multivariate Calculus. This project was funded by the University of Michigan, through the Third Century initiative grant competition.

Teaching Mathematics Well in Community Colleges: Understanding the Impact of Reform-Based Instructional Resources (2008-2013)

Funded by a NSF CAREER Award (DRL 0745474) this research program seeks to study how standards recommendations regarding a more student-centered approach to mathematics instruction can be actualized so that systematic investigations of its impact on students’ learning can be carried out. I describe mathematics teaching in one community college, investigate the conditions under which processes for altering planning, classroom interaction, and verification strategies can be implemented, and study the potential impact of those implementations on students’ learning and success in pre-college, non-developmental, mathematics courses. (Additional information can be accessed on the TMCC website.)

Characteristics of Successful Programs in College Calculus (CSPCC, 2010-2014)

This project, awarded to the Mathematical Association of America and funded by the National Science Foundation seeks to identify key features that can account for high student success in calculus. The project has collected data on over 2000 students, and is pursuing in-depth case analysis of 17 institutions whose programs were identified as highly successful. This is a three-year collaborative grant with David Bressoud (MAA and McCallester College), Chris Rasmussen (San Diego State University), Marilyn Carlson (Arizona State University), Sean Larsen (Portland State University), and Eric Hsu (San Francisco State University). (Aditional information can be accessed on the CSPCC site.)

Making Room for Student Thinking (Mrs. T, 2009-2012)

This project, funded by the Institute of Educational Sciences, seeks to test the use of automated feedback combined with different types of video-based professional development to improve the quality of mathematical discussions in elementary mathematics. It is a three-year, collaborative grant with Kevin Miller (School of Education), Kai Cortina (Psychology), and Mark Thames (School of Education). (Additional information can be found here)

Learning to Teach with Inquiry-Based Learning (2008-2012)

This project, funded by the Educational Advancement Foundation, seeks to test a developmental path in the process of learning to teach undergraduate mathematics with inquiry-based learning approaches. We follow groups of instructors new to the method over a period of two years and document their learning process. We focus on how the instructors’ concerns change over time from aspects of content or self, to methodology, to understanding students’ thinking. This knowledge will be useful for designing faculty development programs that target specific challenges of learning to teach using inquiry-based learning approaches.