Identifying Student Responsibilities While Watching Mathematics Instructional Videos

This study investigated the ways in which college algebra students watch mathematics instructional videos about completing the square with the goal of identifying student responsibilities within a particular video and across different videos. Guided by the theory of didactic situations that have defined implicit teacher and student responsibilities within the context of the face-to-face mathematics classroom, participants watched three different videos about completing the square and answered interview questions. Using categories previously identified by the didactic contract for the face-to-face classroom, this study expanded the types of student responsibilities identified specifically for video watching and found that participants, regardless of overall prior knowledge but who had prior knowledge of completing the square, held a responsibility to use the specific set of steps they were taught by their teacher to solve problems. Findings may be useful to both mathematics teachers and video creators.

Let Me Say It for the Folx in the Back, GOOD TEACHING ISN'T GOOD ENOUGH : Quantifying Academic Achievement in a College Algebra Course Centered on CRP

The purpose of this pre/post-intervention quantitative experimental study was to investigate the effects of a sequence of lessons grounded in the principles of culturally relevant pedagogy on students enrolled in a college algebra course at an HBCU. In particular, the paper focuses on the interaction between these lessons and academic achievement (students' ability to learn, process, and affinity towards the subject they are learning about) with regards to students' grades and their views about mathematics. Two classes of students, an experimental group and a control group, engaged in mathematics lessons that were grounded in rigorous mathematical teaching practices; but the experimental course received lessons that also incorporated principles of culturally relevant pedagogy. Results indicated that students in the experimental course showed significant quantitative gains on the various measures related to academic achievement and self-efficacy in mathematics.