Date of Conferral

2017

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Education

Advisor

Dennis Beck

Abstract

Many students today lack preparedness for college-level math. Colleges and universities offer developmental math courses; however, students are failing these developmental courses and they often have low math self-efficacy. Educational technology and alternative classroom models are used to try to alleviate low success rates in developmental math courses. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between math self-efficacy and math achievement in students in developmental math courses that used the software platform Connect Math. Research questions focused on self-efficacy and math achievement differences between students in computer mediated and traditional lecture-based developmental math courses, as well as differences in their opinion of Connect Math. Guided by self-efficacy theory, a quasi-experimental study was conducted and data from students in traditional lecture-based (n = 81) and computer-mediated (n = 76) developmental math courses was analyzed. ANCOVA analysis revealed a significant relationship between age and math self-efficacy, p = .042 and a significant relationship between class type and student's perceived helpfulness of Connect Math, p = .005. Analysis also found a difference in GPA with computer-mediated students having a slightly higher GPA than traditional lecture-based students . Furthermore, results indicated instructor significantly predicted student opinion of Connect Math, p = .023. Results suggest that greater access to technology did not significantly predict greater success in the developmental math course. With higher completion rates of developmental math courses, colleges and universities could see greater graduation rates for all students.

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