Math professors get grant to study teaching method
2/6/2012 2:45:26 PM
(Feb. 6, 2012) Four North Georgia College & State
University mathematics professors have been awarded the Educational Advancement
Foundation (EAF) grant to research instructional methods designed to increase student performance.
Dr. Brad Bailey |
Dr. Karen Briggs |
Dr. John Holliday |
Dr. Tom Cooper |
Associate professors Dr. Brad Bailey, Dr. Karen Briggs and
Dr. John Holliday and assistant professor Dr. Tom Cooper were awarded $22,900
to study the "Modified Moore Method." The method is a variation of
the instructional method developed by Dr. R.L. Moore, a renowned mathematics
professor who taught at University of Texas at Austin from 1920 to 1969
The Moore Method is an "inquiry-based"
instructional method where students are given problems that they are
responsible for working through and presenting to the class, instead of traditional
classes where the professor gives a lecture and works through example problems.
The material is carefully selected by the professors who offer guidance to the
students as they work with the material.
"The students are doing the work without being shown
explicitly how as we would in a traditional math class," Cooper said.
"What we know from math education is that, at least in theory, they should
learn a lot more that way; you remember it a lot better if you figure it out
yourself."
In some upper level math classes, North Georgia students already
have been learning with the Moore Method over the last year. According to
Cooper, a comparison of final exam scores taken from traditional classes and
classes using the Moore Method showed that students taught with the latter
performed better. In particular, female students' exam scores were significantly
higher.
The EAF grant money will be used to conduct further research
on the Moore Method. By analyzing the collected data, the professors hope to
determine the reason for gender differences in learning with this instructional
method, and to see if the Moore Method really is a better way to teach
students.
Bailey, Briggs and Holliday and will begin teaching with the
Moore Method in the fall and continue the study for two years in order to
collect data from corresponding semesters. The findings will be published and
shared with the math education community.
The Educational Advancement Foundation, which has
headquarters in Austin, Texas, is a philanthropic organization that supports
research and development of inquiry-based learning techniques in the fields of
mathematics and science in the United States. The foundation was inspired by
Dr. R.L. Moore and offers various grant amounts to support research that preserves
his methodology.
For more information, visit eduadvance.org.