Extending Universal Design for Learning through Concurrent Enrollment: Algebra Teachers’ Perspectives

Abstract

Concurrent enrollment refers to partnerships between postsecondary institutions and schools through which secondary school students can complete a university class taught by a qualifying secondary school teacher at their secondary school. We propose that concurrent enrollment programs are an under-recognized tool for extending the impact of Universal Design for Learning (UDL). The context of our study is an equity-focused university course in algebraic mathematical modeling that is also offered through concurrent enrollment in over 30 secondary schools to over 800 secondary students annually in our state of Minnesota, U.S.A. This paper presents a qualitative analysis of secondary school teachers' experiences implementing the inquiry pedagogy and the equity goals of the course. Several results are important for UDL. Teachers (1) describe equity in social terms of race, ethnicity, income, immigration, and language status in addition to measures of academic success; (2) perceive improvements in students' attitudes towards mathematics, school, and university education; (3) perceive student academic growth through mathematical writing; and (4) report close relationships with students. If higher education faculty design their on-campus classes to incorporate UDL principles, concurrent enrollment offers the potential to improve inclusive pathways from secondary schools to universities.

Digital Escape Room, Using Genial.Ly and A Breakout to Learn Algebra at Secondary Education Level in Spain

“…The main problems in algebra learning, many of them related to students are shown in [8], are due to its abstract reasoning and generalization, called as psychologic difficulties [9], as well as others known as cognitive-type difficulties, which are related to the use of symbols and the relations between them, as it can be seen in [10]. According to teacher's point of view, some experiences related to the way they teach algebra are shown in [11]. Moreover, teachers also need to dominate four different skills as it appears in [12]: the need to know that variables are symbols, the symbols for generalizations, the use of functions in the association between sets and the use of patterns.…”

Introduction to Special Issue on Universal Design for Inclusive Pedagogy and a Future Research Agenda

“…Extending UD for Learning through Concurrent Enrollment [9]. Concurrent Enrollment (CE) refers to students enrolled in classes that provide both high school and college credit simultaneously through a carefully constructed curriculum that accomplishes goals for both levels of education.…”

Diseño, implementación y análisis de diferentes metodologías activas en el proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje de matemáticas

“…En lo que al estudiante se refiere, en [264] se muestra que los principales problemas en el aprendizaje del álgebra que se encuentran son, por un lado, los llamados dificultades psicológicas, debidos al razonamiento abstracto y generalización inherentes a esta materia, [265], y por otro, los relacionados con el uso de los símbolos y las relaciones entre ellos, es decir, dificultades de tipo cognitivo, como podemos ver en [266]. Desde el punto de vista del profesor, en [267] se muestran algunas experiencias sobre cómo afectan diferentes técnicas de enseñanza del álgebra al aprendizaje de los alumnos. Además, los profesores necesitan dominar cuatro habilidades diferentes como aparece en [268]: la necesidad de conocer que las variables son símbolos, los símbolos para las generalizaciones, el uso de funciones asociadas entre bloques y el uso de patrones.…”