In-service education in mathematics has been called everything from "an essential and integral part of modern mathematics" to "a complete waste of time." The literature in this area reflects these disparate points of view. As an example of the positive view, J. A. and Ruth Izzo [4] in a study of the re-education of elementary school teachers concluded that in-service programs were an effective means of helping teachers acquire sufficient background in modern mathematics. Moreover, Dosset [2] in a study of sixty-seven elementary school teachers found that those teachers who had completed a mathematics in-service workshop had a better understanding of mathematics than those who had not completed the workshop. However, in reflecting the opposite view, Hand [3] in a study of 348 elementary teachers found that the achievement of first, third and sixth-grade students whose teachers were in-service participants did not differ significantly from those students whose teachers were not in-service participants. Furthermore, Creswell [1] in an article concerning the effectiveness of mathematics workshop concluded that college courses are far more effective in preparing teachers to teach modern mathematics than are the present kinds of in-service programs.In the preceding studies there was no attempt to either physically or statistically control any of the many external variables which might influence the effectiveness on an in-service program in mathematics. Thus, it was felt that a study designed to measure the effect of an in-service program on the mathematics achievement of the par-ticipants^pupils in which the external teacher variables of (1) semester-hours of college mathematics, (2) years of college preparatory mathematics, (3) years of teaching experience, and (4) recency of any college degree were statistically controlled might help to dispel some of the disparity in the two existing points of view. Moreover, in an attempt to yield further information concerning the effectiveness of an in-service program on the teaching of mathematics using a modern mathematics textbook, sixth-grade students with one, two, and three years of instruction from a modern mathematics textbook were used as subjects in the study.Consequently, the following null-hypotheses were formulated and tested for the academic years 1965-66, 1966-67, and 1967-68: 650
The "textbook syndrome" may be defined as a compulsive desire to have your class cover every page in an assigned textbook, or possibly, an overwhelming desire to see
Does a content-methods mathematics course designed for elementary education majors improve the mathematics attitudes of prospective elementary school teachers? Todd (1966) in a study of 287 students who had received a passing grade in a course based on the CUPM Level I recommendations, found that these students when given a pro-and post-test made a significant (p<.01) gain in their mean scores on the Button scale. In a similar study by Reys and Delon (1968) involving 385 students enrolled in one of three courses in the mathematics preparatory program for elementary school teachers at the University of Missouri at Columbia, it was shown that these courses produced some favorable change in the students' attitudes toward arithmetic. Again the students' attitudes were measured using Button's Attitude Scale. It was noted, however, that in neither of these two studies was a comparison made between those students who had completed the course and those who had not completed it. PURPOSEIn light of the preceding discussion, the purpose of the present study was as follows: (1) to determine if a content-method mathematics course designed for elementary education majors improves the mathematics attitudes of prospective elementary school teachers, and (2) to determine if the mathematics attitudes of those prospective elementary school teachers who completed the course were significantly different from those prospective elementary school teachers who had not completed the course. . The instructors teaching the course have a good knowledge of the subject matter as is evidenced by their college mathematics preparation. Moreover, the instructors were asked to (1) display a strong interest in the subject, (2) indicate a desire to have the students understand the material, and (3) display 709
A rather common teaching strategy used in an elementary school mathematics lesson is for the teacher to write a problem such as one hundred sixty-three added to two hundred twenty-eight on the chalk board and ask who in the class can work it, or to ask the class who can solve the fourth statement problem on page twenty-three in the textbook. Since the students are seldom, if ever, given sufficient time to actually solve the problem before being asked to respond, it would appear that the teacher is not asking "who can solve the problem" but rather "who thinks he can solve the problem?" In other words the teacher is asking the student to predict whether or not he is able to solve the problem correctly. Moreover, since only a few individuals are actually given the opportunity to make a response on a single question, the teacher many times relies on a show of hands to determine which student may or may not be able to solve the given problem. Thus, it would be logical to assume that the reliability of this procedure depends upon how well students are able to predict success in solving such problems. It may be further assumed that the students' ability to predict success in solving computational and statement problems is based on a number of complex cognitive and affective variables. However, before any study is made to identify such variables it would be of considerable value to the classroom teacher to seek answers to the following questions:1. How accurately can students predict success in solving computational and statement problems? 2. What relationship, if any, exists between a student's ability to predict success in solving computational and statement problems and his mathematics achievement? 3. What relationship, if any, exists between a student's ability to predict success in solving computational and statement problems and his mathematics attitude?In an attempt to seek some insight into these questions, the following pilot study was conducted. BACKGROUND The researcher was unable to locate any research which was directly re-
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