Assessment of numeracy in sports and exercise science students at an Australian university

The effect of high school study of mathematics on numeracy performance of sports and exercise science (SES) students is not clear. To investigate this further, we tested the numeracy skills of 401 students enrolled in a Bachelor of Health Sciences degree in SES using a multiple-choice survey consisting of four background questions and 39 numeracy test questions. Background questions (5-point scale) focused on highest level of mathematics studied at high school, self-perception of mathematics proficiency, perceived importance of mathematics to SES and likelihood of seeking help with mathematics. Numeracy questions focused on rational number, ratios and rates, basic algebra and graph interpretation. Numeracy performance was based on answers to these questions (1 mark each) and represented by the total score (maximum = 39). Students from first (n = 212), second (n = 78) and third (n = 111) years of the SES degree completed the test. The distribution of numeracy test scores for the entire cohort was negatively skewed with a median (IQR) score of 27(11). We observed statistically significant associations between test scores and the highest level of mathematics studied (P < 0.05), being lowest in students who studied Year 10 Mathematics (20 (9)), intermediate in students who studied Year 12 General Mathematics (26 (8)) and highest in two groups of students who studied higher-level Year 12 Mathematics (31 (9), 31 (6)). There were statistically significant associations between test scores and level of self-perception of mathematics proficiency and also likelihood of seeking help with mathematics (P < 0.05) but not with perceived importance of mathematics to SES. These findings reveal that the level of mathematics studied in high school is a critical factor determining the level of numeracy performance in SES students.     

Parents’ Attitudes Toward Mathematics and the Influence on Their Students’ Attitudes toward Mathematics: A Quantitative Study

The purpose of this study was to investigate parents’ attitudes toward mathematics, their students' attitude toward mathematics, and the influence of the parents’ attitude on the students' attitude toward mathematics. Data analyses revealed statistically significant positive correlations between parents’ and students’ attitudes toward mathematics. Additionally, parents’ mathematics attitude significantly predicted students’ attitudes toward mathematics (n=146). By understanding the influence of parents’ attitudes on students’ attitudes toward mathematics, school efforts can be geared toward fostering favorable attitudes toward mathematics among parents.     

Mathematics Anxiety and Learning Styles: What Is the Relationship in Elementary Preservice Teachers?

The study investigated the relationship between elementary preservice teachers' mathematics anxiety levels and learning style preferences. Subjects included 72 preservice teachers at a midsized southeastern U.S. university who were at the end of their third year of study. The subjects completed the Mathematics Anxiety Rating Scale and the Style Analysis Survey (SAS). Scores obtained on the two instruments were analyzed using Pearson product‐moment correlations. Eleven of the SAS subscales were examined. The global subscale was the only one related to mathematics anxiety at the p < .05 level of significance. Findings revealed a low (r= .28) but significant (p < .05) positive correlation between mathematics anxiety and a global (right‐brain dominant) learning style. As global orientation scores increased, mathematics anxiety scores increased as well. This study indicated that there is tendency for global learners to possess higher levels of mathematics anxiety.     

Evaluating efficacy of environmental education programming

The Clark Fork Watershed Education Program (CFWEP) goals are: (a) increasing students’ understanding of the nature of ecological impacts within their watershed as related to historic mining damage; and (b) increasing students’ sense of stewardship of newly restored landscapes. Data from 2012 to 2016 were evaluated for student knowledge gains (46 trials representing 2,395 student pre‐surveys; 2,409 student post‐surveys). Data from 2013 to 2016 were evaluated for students’ attitudes toward science and disposition toward caring for the environment (38 trials representing 1,479 pre‐surveys; 1,460 post‐surveys). The results of this study support that the program’s goals are being achieved. Students achieved statistically significant gains on knowledge surveys with a 33.4% overall gain pre‐ to posttest (p < 0.0001). Students also moved toward greater positive responses in both attitudes toward science and disposition toward caring for the environment with Cohen’s d effect sizes of “medium effect” for caring toward the environment (d = 0.52) and “small effect” of positive disposition toward science (d = 0.24).     

On Fefferman and Burkholder–Davis–Gundy inequalities for ℰ-martingales

In a previous paper we introduced a new concept, the notion of ℰ-martingales and we extended the well-known Doob inequality (for 1 < p < + ∞) and the Burkholder–Davis–Gundy inequalities (for p = 2) to ℰ-martingales. After showing new Fefferman-type inequalities that involve sharp brackets as well as the space bmo _q , we extend the Burkholder–Davis–Gundy inequalities (for 1 < p < + ∞) to ℰ-martingales. By means of these inequalities we give sufficient conditions for the closedness in L ^p of a space of stochastic integrals with respect to a fixed ℝ^d-valued semimartingale, a question which arises naturally in the applications to financial mathematics. Finally we investigate the relation between uniform convergence in probability and semimartingale topology. Received: 22 July 1997 / Revised version: 3 July 1998     

The Effects of Representations,Constructivist Approaches,and Engagement on Middle School Students' Algebraic Procedure and Conceptual Understanding

This study examined the effects of types of representations, constructivist teaching approaches, and student engagement on middle school algebra students' procedural knowledge and conceptual understanding. Data gathered from 16 video lessons and algebra pretest/posttests were used to run three multilevel structural equation models. Symbolic representations (p < .02), shared meanings (p < .05), and meaningful feedback (p < .10) significantly increased procedural and conceptual understanding. Enactive representations significantly increased procedural knowledge (p < .05). There was also a significant relationship between the two types of learning at the within level (p < .01) and between level (p < .05).     

The Effects on Students' Cognitive Achievement When Using the Cooperative Learning Method in Earth Science Classrooms

This study investigated the effects of cooperative learning instruction versus traditional teaching methods on students' earth science achievement in secondary schools. A total of 770 ninth-grade students enrolled in 20 sections of a required earth science course participated in this nonequivalent control group quasi-experiment. The control groups (n= 10) received a traditional approach, while the experimental groups (n= 10) used cooperative strategies. Study results include (a) no significant differences were found between the experimental groups and the control groups when overall achievement (F= 0.13, p > .05), knowledge-level (F= 0.12, p > .05), and comprehension-level (F= 0.34, p > .05) test items were considered; and (b) students who worked cooperatively performed significantly better than students who worked alone on the application-level test items (F= 4.63, p < .05). These findings suggest that cooperative-learning strategies favor students' earth science performance at higher but not lower levels of cognitive domains in the secondary schools.     

The Effects of Project‐Based Learning on Students' Academic Achievement,Attitude, and Retention of Knowledge: The Subject of “Electricity in Our Lives”

The aim of this study is to analyze the effects of project‐based learning on students' academic achievement, attitude, and retention of knowledge in relation to the subject of “Electricity in Our Lives” in a fourth‐grade science course. The study was conducted in a quasi‐experimental design as a “pre‐test, post‐test with control group.” In the experimental group, the unit was taught through the project‐based learning method. The measuring tools were administered to both groups before and after the applications. To perfectly analyze the “process” of the method, seven different learning assessment “forms” were administered to the students. The findings of the forms indicated that the students learn to construct their own learning and to evaluate changes in their own behavior through the application of the method. The application of different methods between both groups had a statistically significant effect in terms of academic achievement, (F(1,112) = 46.78, p = .000) and of retention of knowledge (F(1,112) = 35.24, p = .000). However, there were no statistically significant effects from being in different groups for the attitudes of students (F(1,112) = .99, p = .321). For the students, being in the project‐based learning groups resulted in better academic achievement and retention of knowledge than being in the traditional teaching group.     

Improved estimation of accuracy in simple hypothesis versus simple alternative testing

In the hypothesis testing problem, a most common used evidence against the null hypothesis is the p-value. Although there have been many Bayesian criticisms leveled at p-value, Hwang et al. (Ann. Statist. 20 (1992), 490) show the adequacy of using p-value as evidence against the null hypothesis by considering testing as an estimation problem. However, when the parameter space is not the natural space, Woodroofe and Wang (Ann. Statist. 28 (2000) 1561) show that the usual p-value derived by the N–P test is not appropriate to be the evidence against the null hypothesis for the Poisson distribution from an estimation point of view and provide a modified p-value. Although this modified p-value is admissible, it is not the admissible estimator which can dominate the usual p-value. In this paper, we concentrate on the simple hypothesis versus simple alternative hypothesis testing problem. Admissible estimators which dominate the usual p-value are provided.     

Impacting the Science Attitudes of Minority High School Youth

A study involving urban, minority high school students in a supplemental education program was conducted during 1989 to test the null hypothesis that no relationship exists between exposure to program activities and changes in mathematics performance or attitude towards science. The treatment activities integrated science, with language arts, mathematics, computers and counseling and enabled students to discuss matters of concern and the relationship of these concerns to their academic work and to future success in careers based in science and mathematics. Mathematics performance data were analyzed using ANOVA (premath X group, postmath X group), and t-test/pairs (premath vs. postmath). Pre- and postreatment data on attitude towards science were rank ordered, paired and analyzed using the Wilcoxin Matched-Pairs Signed Ranks Test. The findings reveal a significantly positive treatment effect. In spite of the caution suggested by the limited sample, exposure to the treatment has resulted in an increased positive effect, not only upon attitude towards science, but also upon mathematics performance.     

Math Autobiographies: A Window into Teachers' Identities as Mathematics Learners

Mathematics autobiographies have the potential to help teachers reflect on their identities as mathematics learners and to understand their role in the development of their students' mathematics identities. This paper reports on a professional development project for K‐2 teachers (n = 41), in which participants were asked to write mathematics autobiographies. Using an adaptation of an existing framework for characterizing teachers' mathematics stories, we describe the consistencies among the participants' experiences as mathematics learners and the events that are identified as being the impetus for a transition from a negative to a positive attitude toward mathematics. Implications for both teachers and teacher educators are presented.     

A Note on the Spectrum of Invertible p-hyponormal Operators

A bounded linear operator T is clalled p-hyponormal if (T*T)^p ≥ (TT)^p, 0 < p < 1. It is known that for semi-hyponormal operators (p = 1/2), the spectrum of the operator is equal to the union of the spectra of the general polar symbols of the operator. In this paper we prove a somewhat weaker result for invertible p-hyponormal operators for 0 < p < 1/2.     

A Note on the Embedding of Subspaces of Lp into ℓNr, 0 < r < 1, r ≦ p < 2

In this paper we extend a result by Bourgain-Lindenstrauss-Milman (see [1]). We prove: Let 0 < ? < 1/2, 0< r < 1, r< p < 2. There exists a constant C = C(r,p,?) such that if X is any n-dimensional subspace of L_p(0, l), then there exists Y ? ?^N_r with d(X, Y) ≦ 1 + ?, whenever N > Cn. As an application, we obtain the following partial result: Let 0 < r < 1. There exist constants C = C(r) and C' = C' (r) such that if X is any n-dimensional subspace of L_r(0,1), then there exists Y ? ^N_r with d(X, Y) ≦ C (logn)^l/^r, whenever N ≧ C'n.     

The long term impact of a coherence based model for mathematics intervention

This article presents a large-scale longitudinal study of hundreds of students across the state of Kentucky that participated in a dual-focus mathematics intervention initiative when they were in the third grade. Rather than an exclusive focus on intervention, this initiative focused on both (i) high quality pull-out intervention and (ii) coherence between pull-out intervention and classroom instruction. The study found that over half of the third grade intervention students that participated in this initiative were classified as “novice” (the lowest possible performance category) on state standardized mathematics assessments at the end of the third grade. However, over the course of the following four years, the novice reduction rate of these students was significantly (p < .01) greater than other novices in Kentucky that did not participate in the initiative. These findings indicate that when implementing intervention initiatives to help students that are struggling with mathematics, it may be important to establish coherence between pull-out intervention and classroom instruction. The long term impact of this approach among traditionally underrepresented minorities suggest that this publication may provide insight into important equity issues where long-term analyses may sometimes be needed to capture the full impact of intervention initiatives.     

The Finite Hilbert Transform in ℒ2

It is well known that the finite HILBERT transform T is a NOETHER (FREDHOLM) operator when considered as a map from ?^p into itself if 1 < p < 2 or 2 < p < ∞. When p = 2, the map T is not a NOETHER operator. We present two theorems which characterize the range of T in ?² and, as immediate consequences, give simple expressions for its inverse.     

Norm optimization problem for linear operators in classical Banach spaces

The main result of the paper shows that, for 1 < p < ∞ and 1 ≤ q < ∞, a linear operator T: ℓ _p → ℓ _q attains its norm if, and only if, there exists a not weakly null maximizing sequence for T (counterexamples can be easily constructed when p = 1). For 1 < p ≠ q < ∞, as a consequence of the previous result we show that any not weakly null maximizing sequence for a norm attaining operator T: ℓ _p → ℓ _q has a norm-convergent subsequence (and this result is sharp in the sense that it is not valid if p = q). We also investigate lineability of the sets of norm-attaining and non-norm attaining operators.     

Recovery of band limited functions via cardinal splines

The main result of this paper asserts that if a function f is in the class B_π,p, 1 <p < ∞; that is, those p-integrable functions whose Fourier transforms are supported in the interval [ - π, π], then f and its derivatives f^(j) j = 1, 2, …, can be recovered from its sampling sequence{f(k)} via the cardinal interpolating spline of degree m in the metric ofL _q(ℝ)), 1 <p=q < ∞, or 11 <p=q < ⩽ ∞.     

Preservice Teachers' Beliefs and Attitude About Teaching and Learning Mathematics Through Music: An Intervention Study

This article presents exploratory research investigating the integration of music and a mathematics lesson as an intervention to promote preservice teachers' attitude and confidence and to extend their beliefs toward teaching mathematics integrated with music. Thirty students were randomly selected from 64 preservice teachers in a southern university. A 90‐minute mathematics lesson integrated with a music composition activity was taught by the first author. Pre‐ and postquestionnaires were provided to evaluate the change in preservice teachers' attitude and beliefs toward mathematics. The results demonstrated that the mathematics lesson integrated with music had a positive effect on preservice teachers' attitude and beliefs toward mathematics teaching and learning.