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Investigation of the Connections of the Mathematical Skills Used in the Workplace Versus School for a Group of Adolescent Students

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Identifier	Thesis 1942
Author	Flock, Amy L.
Title	Investigation of the Connections of the Mathematical Skills Used in the Workplace Versus School for a Group of Adolescent Students
Publisher	Central Connecticut State University
Date	2008
Resource Type	Master's Thesis
Notes	There is a gap in the educational research that investigates the connection between the mathematics skills students learn in school and how they use these skills at the workplace. Students should be able to apply the mathematics skills they learned in school to other out of school contexts. This research will look specifically at how the mathematics skills learned in school are applied to the workplace. Ten adolescents ranging in age from 17 to 19 working at an ice cream shop in a middle sized city located in New England participated in this study. Four adolescents a private high school, two attend a public high school, one attends a technical high school, one attends a community college, one attends a four year college and one is out of school but graduated from a public high school. The subjects for the study were selected because they use mathematics skills at their part time job within the community. The adolescents completed a questionnaire. Verbal follow ups were audio taped and recorded in an effort to allow the examiner to ask more probing questions to elicit more details from the subjects. The subjects completed two worksheets containing mathematics problems. After the completion of each worksheet, the examiner recorded the subjects' verbal responses and explanations of their written answers. The research showed a lack of connection between what is learned in school and its application in real-world contexts. These data suggest that the last or current mathematics class that the students took was a strong predictor of their performance. The four students who had the most difficulty and made the majority of the errors were the students who listed Algebra 2 or Trigonometry as their last or current mathematics class. The types of errors that the four students made can be categorized as Application Based, Knowledge Based, Mechanics Based, and Misconception Based errors. The four students showed deficits in the areas of (a) percents, (b) fractions, (c) number sense, (d) computation, (e) conversion, (f) problem solving. Two of the students lacked number sense and the recognition of the magnitude of a quantity. The four students showed misconceptions that led to defective algorithms such as for computing fractions, computing percents and converting grams to tons. The Calculus, Pre-Calculus, and Business Mathematics students were proficient in the mathematics areas covered in this research. The student who was enrolled in AP Probability & Statistics demonstrated good reasoning skills but due to her sloppy mental mathematics, made multiple decimal place value errors. This research has many implications for teaching. Students should be exposed to life skills in the classroom setting at all levels of mathematics education. Everyday mathematical activities such as computing microwave times, balancing checkbooks, and computing tips are necessary life skills that should be mastered in school. It is crucial for educators to analyze and correct students' misconceptions based mathematical errors early on. Deeply rooted misconceptions can leave students thinking that they are unable to do math. Educators need to provide opportunities for students to develop number sense. Students require more exposure to real world examples that allow them to visualize and better understand the relevance of fundamental mathematical concepts such as weight and quantity. Lastly, more emphasis should be placed on students' ability to understand the reasonableness of their answers. This research found that obtaining an answer to a mathematics problem is not enough. Greater emphasis should be placed on students' ability to interpret what a computational answer means and determine if it is a reasonable solution.
Subject	Mathematics -- Study and teaching (Secondary)
Department	Department of Mathematical Sciences
Advisor	Gould, S. Louise
Type	Text
Digital Format	application/pdf
Language	eng
OCLC number	713734081
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