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I don't know how much stock I'd put in self-reported reasons for attrition. At my school the undergrad professors for calc are all excellent - well reviewed by
by alanctgardner2 13y ago
I don't know how much stock I'd put in self-reported reasons for attrition. At my school the undergrad professors for calc are all excellent - well reviewed by students, winning awards, etc. Still, a lot of STEM students drop out when they're taking first-year calc, because STEM programs are also just very hard. Even if we axed the first-year math requirements, I suspect those people would make it two or three years in before getting caught up on another class, and ultimately leaving anyways.
- edtechdev 13y agoStudent ratings actually negatively correlate with learning I think maybe I'll trust the decades of research on math education rather than your intuitions. For example, there is research showing that many more students succeed in calculus when the math is taught in context, not abstractly and plug and chug. One set of studies showed that such a course increased calculus pass rates from 60% to 90% (see the Wright State engineering math course, and see the ENGAGE Engineering project). Another large set of studies shows that student learning can double and graduation rates triple when active, participatory learning techniques are used by the instructor instead of traditional lecture (The PCAST report - Engage to Excel cites it).