Award Date

5-1-2022

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Teaching and Learning

First Committee Member

Micah Stohlmann

Second Committee Member

Travis Olson

Third Committee Member

Jeffrey Shih

Fourth Committee Member

Douglas Burke

Number of Pages

226

Abstract

This mixed methods study explored the relationship between collegiate math instructors’ reported teaching practices, teaching beliefs, and actual teaching practices. Instructors reported their own teaching practices by survey. Qualitative participants were purposively sampled from the quantitative survey results. These qualitative participants presented their teaching beliefs through an initial interview. Afterward, actual teaching practices were confirmed through classroom observations. Lastly, instructors completed reflective interviews to address findings in the previously collected data.Through the survey instrument, this study established common teaching practices of collegiate math instructors. The study identified that on average the post-secondary math instructors in this sample employed between 26 to 27 research-based teaching practices in their classrooms. Several of these research-based practices relate to feedback and testing for students and student assignments. Next, through the application of multiple measures of data collection, this study constructed a rich description of the teaching beliefs and teaching practices for seven qualitative participants. This study established that instructors were mostly consistent between their self-reported practices, teaching beliefs, and observed teaching practices. Furthermore, when an inconsistency did occur the discrepancy was most often contributed to external factors rather than a direct contradiction between the instructor’s espoused beliefs and preferred theories-in-use. The study identified two main factors that should be considered when promoting faculty adoption of student-centered teaching practices. First, contentment with current teaching practices impacted instructor willingness to attempt new methods. Second, an instructor’s held anxiety that implementing new teaching practices may lead to ineffective instruction or poor results.

Keywords

Collegiate Math; Enacted Practices; Espoused Beliefs; Espoused Theory; STEM Education; Theories-in-use

Disciplines

Education | Science and Mathematics Education

File Format

pdf

File Size

1360 KB

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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