- Year 2019
- NSF Award #1540802
- Registration Current Noyce Scholar
- First Name Ghana
- Last Name Rimal
- Discipline Math
- Institution The University of Vermont, MAT in Secondary Education Program
- School Name and District Currently Teaching Winooski Middle/High School (From coming School Year)
Abstract
This poster presentation focuses on a quadratic unit of study consisting of ten lessons grounded in the principles and practices of problem-based learning and the 5-E approach. Each lesson is designed to promote active student participation and consisted of three core sections: private (individual) think and work time, collaborative (group work), and learning assessment (evaluation). The Analysis of Learning project is a required pre-post assessment project administered during student teaching that measures students’ progress and achievement within the five-week solo teaching period. A summative assessment was designed to assess the fundamental concepts of parabolas and quadratic equations and their application in solving real-world problems. The assessment had four proficiency levels of understanding that were aligned to the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics. Students were administered a pre-assessment at the beginning of the unit and a post-assessment at the end of the unit to analyze student progress and to determine teaching effectiveness. Analysis of pre-post assessment data revealed that students’ proficiency improved by more than 50% in each proficiency level (1-4) and increased 16.67% on average for all four levels. The analysis of learning data clearly demonstrated that student proficiency depended on an appropriate selection of mathematics content, materials which help to facilitate the discussions, strategies to engage all learners in their learning as well as building a good relationship with all learners.
