NSF Award
1725394
An established United States workforce need and critical challenge is to recruit and train students in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields. Because mathematics is a fundamental part of all STEM disciplines, success of undergraduate students in mathematics is a crucial ingredient in addressing this challenge. This "TPSE Math Chairs+1 Conference #2" project, with leadership team from the Transforming Post-Secondary Education in Mathematics (TPSE Math) group, will organize and convene a conference primarily of mathematical sciences department chairs and other academic leaders from a diverse set of institutions of higher education from across the country. This is the second conference of this nature with the first having been held in October, 2016 (NSF 1651738). Workshop topics will include several key questions and issues to be addressed to catalyze improved teaching, learning, retention, and overall student success in undergraduate mathematics. <br/><br/>Although recent education research has provided the STEM education community with indications and suggestions for various directions for change to improve undergraduate teaching and student learning, this community as a whole has not always been quick to foster such changes. Among the purposes of the workshop will be to encourage more collaboration among members of the mathematics community, help department chairs develop capacities to catalyze change in their own departments, and serve as a vehicle for chairs with common interests to work together for change after the conference, especially in areas of developing more diverse and modern curricula for mathematics majors and non-mathematics majors alike. To help guide the discussion and conference outcomes, the conference organizers with input from participants plan to address a wide range of questions and determine research needed to address them. The questions and categories include: (1) What do the various STEM disciplines want for their students who take mathematics? What mathematical training do other disciplines want for their majors? Is this training appropriate for careers in those disciplines? (2) What kinds of mathematical sciences training do employers want? Do employers in fact know what mathematics training can be most useful for their employees? (3) <br/>What are the levels of career satisfaction experienced by students who have - and have not - taken particular mathematics courses or pathways? (4) What menu of mathematics training best supports basic numeracy (general quantitative and reasoning skills) for citizens in today's society? and (5) Why are the current post-secondary pathways variations of algebra and calculus unsatisfactory? What should replace them? The conference also will showcase extant models, resources, and research results, and participants will be asked to suggest how they can be adopted, adapted, disseminated, scaled up, and evaluated, and to recommend what additional research is needed.
