The Effects of a Project-based Course on Students’ Attitudes Toward Mathematics And Students’ Achievement at a Two-year College

摘要

This study was conducted to investigate the impact of Foundations of Quantitative Reasoning course on students’ attitudes toward mathematics and students’ achievement. The Foundations of Quantitative Reasoning is a project-based course containing several practical topics which students apply in daily life. It is offered at the University of Cincinnati as an alternative pathway for non-STEM majors to fulfill their mathematics requirements. Pre-survey-post-survey and pretest-posttest designs were used to test the effectiveness of the treatment regarding the attitudes toward mathematics and mathematics achievement respectively. The participants in this study were 21 students enrolled in a Foundations of Quantitative Reasoning course and 20 students enrolled in a College Algebra course offered at the University of Cincinnati Blue Ash College. Statistically significant results were observed for improvement in attitudes toward mathematics and mathematics achievement.