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 2003-2004 Huckabay Teaching Fellowship Proposal
by Kelly Jabbusch

History of Math 111/112

Math 111 Algebra with Applications and Math 112 Applications of Calculus to Business and Economics are two service courses, which the Mathematics Department developed for the Business and Economic Departments.  Approximately 1100 students enroll in Math 111 each year; 800 of those continue with Math 112.  Math 111 places basic algebra in the context of specific problems in economics and finance.  Math 112 then introduces techniques of differentiation and integration, along with applications to word problems. Concepts such as optimization and rate of change, area, tangent, derivatives, accumulation and integrals are taught using specific business and economics applications. 

Before the modifications, instructors taught from a standard math textbook.  Students attended a 300-student lecture three times a week, and attended a 40-student quiz section the other two days.  With this framework, the Business and Economic Departments were unsatisfied with the students’ mathematical skills and conceptual development.  To address the concerns of these departments, the curriculum was reformed using current educational research designs.  A new text was written and the lecture size was decreased to 160 students.  As a result, students have become more active in both lecture and quiz section; yet, the course has become more challenging for teachers and teaching assistants [TA]. 

Instructional Problem

Although the mathematics covered in these two courses are basic to any math TA, the focus and applications are new to most TAs.  The academic background of most TAs in the Mathematics Department is oriented toward the science fields rather than the business fields.  Most TAs were students of the standard calculus course rather than the business calculus course.  TAs certainly know the mathematical definitions and concepts underlining the material, but must learn the corresponding business terms and applications which relate to these concepts at the same time as the students. 

As research indicates, content knowledge is essential for successful teaching.  When teaching any math class, a TA must be able to explain a mathematical concept in a variety ways due to the different learning styles of the students.  The lack of exposure of a TA with the business concepts creates difficulties for them to teach the courses.  Additionally, two aspects of the business calculus sequence, the textbook and facilitation requirements, exasperates this situation even more. 

Unlike a standard calculus text, the text is comprised of a series of worksheets introducing mathematical concepts within the framework of business applications using a guided discovery method.  This format does not provide necessary resources for TAs without the content knowledge.  Since TAs are not required to attend lectures, TAs must learn by completing the worksheets along with the students.  Effectively, this means that the TAs are rarely more than a week ahead of the students in the material.

The TAs lack of experience becomes most evident when facilitating group activities, the main responsibility of the TAs.  TAs are not able to help students make the connections to other concepts, enabling them to develop a rich understanding of the material.  Opportunities to extend students’ knowledge are not advantage of when TAs do not have the business background.

Addressing the Problem

In order to provide the students a better learning experience within the quiz sections, resources about the business aspects of the course are needed to assist the TAs.  Many TAs avoid this course because they do not have the content knowledge of the business applications and find it difficult to teach this course.  We would both like to see the TAs and ourselves more prepared and confident by creating additional instructional materials for the TAs.  More knowledgeable TAs would have a positive impact on the students’ learning and help them retain the knowledge for future classes in the Business and Economic Departments.

We would like to develop a handbook of additional materials for TAs which would include:

·        An outline of the business concepts and terminology introduced in the course and the mathematical concepts they correspond to.

·        Background information on business concepts not given in the text.

·        Brief motivation for how these concepts are used in future business and economic courses. 

·        Various teaching approaches to explain mathematical results through business applications.

During the Fall Quarter of 2003, the Huckabay Fellowship will be used to develop these materials.  We will meet with instructors from the Business and Economic Departments to gather their views about the course and to clarify their expectations for the students.  We will collect texts that are used by the Business and Economic Departments to provide background information.  We plan to meet with past and current TAs of Math 111/112 to discuss what additional materials they require to be more successful teachers. 

We plan to have the handbook completed by the end of Fall Quarter, so that TAs  and instructors have access to it for the Winter Quarter.  Additionally, the instructors of the course can use the handbook in their weekly instructor-TA meetings and for developing activities.

Project Assessment

At the end of the 2003 Spring Quarter, we will create a survey and administer it to the current Math 112 students, assessing student confidence their TA’s content knowledge of the business applications and the TA’s ability to make connections between the mathematics and business concepts.  Additionally, five quiz sections randomly selected will be observed for the quantitative and qualitative incidences where TAs make the connections between the mathematics and business concepts. 

At the end of the 2004 Winter Quarter, we plan to administer the same survey to Math 112 students, whose TAs have had access to the handbook.  Once again, five quiz sections will be observed for the incidences where TAs make the connections.  Additionally, interviews with TAs will be conducted to discuss the impact the additional materials had on their teaching of the course. 

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