STEM or What? What Trajectory?

In community colleges, ‘developmental mathematics’ courses are the highest enrollment math courses. These courses are based on a ‘calculus’ track, in most cases; I explore this issue in one of the Instant Presentations. Most of our students are not required to take calculus, or even pre-calculus, for their program. What is their trajectory?

Many of my students are on a trajectory to meet a general education requirement in mathematics. In some cases, this is the requirement of my college (a course after beginning algebra); in other cases, it is the requirement of a transfer institution … for those who transfer. What is the trajectory of general education in mathematics?

The “SIGMAA-QL” (quantitative literacy special interest group of the MAA) conducted a study in 2009 in an attempt to determine any commonality in our general education requirements. The results are available in the report http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.158.6128&rep=rep1&type=pdf , which I have been studying this week.

This “QL” survey was intended for both 2-year and 4-year institutions, and they tried. They sent the survey to every MAA-liaison, and this included over 400 at community colleges. The return? About 45 out of those CC. Given the small number, the results could not be summarized. The response rate was about 25% for 4-year colleges (275 returned, I believe), so the report deals with the 4-year situation.

Within the 4-year environment, the survey sound a surprising amount of ‘diversity’ in the general education requirement across an institution. However, most of these courses fall into two categories — part of the pre-calculus sequence, or statistics. What is trajectory we are designing here? Are we saying that all students should attempt but fail to complete a sequence towards calculus? Are we saying that ‘getting ready for calculus’ is equivalent to general education? Are we saying that statistics is the only exception for students — no other branch of mathematics has validity for all students?

Given the direct connection between developmental mathematics and these ‘general education’ requirements, we need to do some critical thinking relative to the trajectories we create. What does it mean to be ‘quantitatively literate’, and how does this differ from ‘quantitative reasoning’? Dealing with these questions will form a strong foundation for building trajectories which we impose on our students … this imposition needs to be based on a sound argument for their benefit. (We need an argument stronger than “math is good for you”.)

Developmental Mathematics Revival!

Bringing a new vitality to college mathematics 2011 to 2019