Professor John Moyer researches effectiveness of algebra curriculums
Marquette University, the University of Delaware and Widener University are comparing the effects of different curricula on algebraic learning in urban middle schools. The project began in 2006 and has been supported through two grants from the National Science Foundation totaling nearly $4 million.
The project, titled “A Longitudinal Investigation of Curricular Effectiveness on Algebra Learning,” is led at Marquette by John Moyer, professor of mathematics. The research project coordinator is Victoria Robinson, also a member of Marquette’s Department of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science.
“The research is important because it will provide hard data that can help to settle the ongoing, widespread debate in the mathematics education community regarding the relative effectiveness of using a so-called reform approach to teaching mathematics as opposed to a more traditional approach,” said Moyer.
The project compares the effects of using a newer, more opened-ended teaching approach, known as the Connected Mathematics Project curriculum, to a more traditional, structured approach to teaching algebra. Over the past six years, the project has followed more than 1,400 middle school students from 12 Milwaukee Public Schools. Six schools that adopted the CMP curriculum were randomly selected and are being compared to students from six non-CMP schools, which were selected based on comparable ethnicity, family incomes, accessibility of resources and test results.
According to Moyer, the study has shown that open-ended problem solving ability of the students who were taught using the CMP curriculum in grades 6-8 is significantly greater than the open-ended problem solving ability of the students who used more traditional curricula. However, he cautioned that decisions about using a certain curriculum should depend on many factors and should not be based on the outcomes of a single study.
The project will finish collecting data in June 2012, and the team will spend the following year further analyzing the information.
Summer 2012 Research Experience
