The Alsawaie study of 180 undergraduate students taking Math 242, 285 and 315 at UIUC in 2000 came up with these grade averages:
The study went to classify the students as "random learners" and "sequential learners." The most creative folks are found within the random learners. The least creative folks are found within the sequential learners.
The results:
From the study: "These findings provide evidence that [the Mathematica format] accomodates all learners regardless of their learning styles ... [But that] the traditional instruction is biased agianst random learners." Source: O. N. Alsawaie, Ph.D Thesis, UIUC, 2000 Park-Travers Study at UIUC: This included achievement tests, attitude surveys, concept maps and interviews of Calculus&Mathematica students versus standard students. The conclusion: "The findings were all favorable to C&M students. The C&M group obtained a higher level of conceptual understanding than did the standard group without loss of [hand] computational ability.
Furthermore the C&M group's disposition toward mathematics and computers was far more positive than that of the standard group." Source: Kyungmee Park and K. J. Travers, CBMS Issues in Mathematics Education, Volume 6, pp 155-176. Holdener Study at US Air Force Academy: At the U.S. Air Force Academy, C&M Vector Calculus students beat standard CalcIII students on the same final anchored exam questions.
Results:
Overall:
Conceptual Problems:
Hand Skill Problems:
Source: J. Holdener, PRIMUS,VII No 1, 62-72 Aldis, Sidhu, Joiner Study at the Australian Defence Force Academy: At the Australian Defence Force Academy, on a uniform final exam, the engineering C&M students were not significantly different from the engineering lecture students in matters of hand calculation. But the engineering C&M group were significantly better on conceptual scores than the engineering lecture group.
Source: G. K. Aldis, H. S. Sidhu and K.F. Joiner, International Journal of Computer Algebra in Mathematics Education,Vol 6,no 3, pp 167-190 Rockett Study at UIUC: Angus Rockett's study compared performance of students who took all their UIUC calculus in Mathematica sections and performance of students who took all their UIUC calculus in book sections in selected engineeering courses. Some of the results:
In ECE 290 (Introduction to Computer Engineering):
In TAM 235 (Fluid Dynamics):
In ME 213:
In TAM 150 (Statics):
In TAM 212 (Dynamics):
Source: Communication from Angus Rocket to math chair Joseph Rosenblatt
Copyright © 2006 Calculus & Mathematica at UIUC
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