Math Eyes to See Math in Everything We Do
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Hosted by the American Institutes for Research Washington Opening Our Math Eyes To See Math In Everything We Do July 12th — July 15th 2015 Proceedings of the 22nd International Conference of Adults Learning Mathematics — A Research Forum (ALM) Edited by Anestine Hector-Mason, Linda Jarlskog and David Kaye AIR is one of the world's largest behavioral and social science research and evaluation organizations. AIR’s mission is to conduct and apply the best behavioral and social science research and evaluation towards improving peoples’ lives, with a special emphasis on the disadvantaged. For more information visit www.air.org. The 22nd Adults Learning enhancement of teaching Mathematics – A Research and learning in higher Forum (ALM) international education Dublin, Ireland conference was hosted by Aspiring through Education the American Institutes for Dr. Roosevelt Johnson, Research (AIR) in Alexandria, Deputy Associate Virginia. The conference showcased Administrator for Education, international perspectives related to the The National Aeronautics teaching and learning of and Space Administration (NASA) Washington, numeracy and mathematics. District of Columbia. International experts in Mathematics in Our Lives numeracy and mathematics Dr. Freeman A. Hrabowski, President, University convened at the conference of Maryland, Baltimore County, Maryland with a focus on five key Numeracy: a Prerequisite for Sustainability discussion topics: Ms. Marilyn Waite, Environmental Sustainability (1) adult numeracy concepts, theories and Engineer; Owner, Sustainable Visit, Paris, France practice; and Beijing, China. (2) science technology engineering and Real-World Problem Solving Through M in STEM mathematics (STEM); Dr. Padmanabhan Seshaiyer, Director, Center for (3) numeracy and diversity; Mathematics Professional Outreach and (4) numeracy and literacy; and Educational Technology, George Mason (5) numeracy and the workforce. University, Fairfax, Virginia As these proceedings show As you will see from the submissions, there was a very wide range presentations and abstracts in these ALM 22 of presentations made by the Conference Proceedings, the strengths and participants in the parallel needs of mathematical teaching, learning and sessions over three days of even policy can be viewed from many different discussion. Participants came angles and, in particular, through exploiting our from 16 states within the US mathematical eyes. At this conference there was and from seven other the added experience of AIR focusing on the countries. ways in which teaching and learning can Each day of the conference was introduced by improve people’s inspirational plenary addresses making us lives and how to aware of how much we can miss if we do not transform the use our mathematical eyes. learning of Using Maths Eyes to Give Numeracy the Profile it numeracy and Deserves mathematics. Terry Maguire Director, National forum for the ISBN 978-91-639-3131-4 www.alm-online.net Opening our Mathematical Eyes Proceedings of the 22nd International Conference of Adults Learning Mathematics – A research Forum Hosted by American Institutes for Research Washington DC July 12 to 15, 2015 Editors Anestine Hector-Mason Linda Jarlskog David Kaye Local Organisers Anestine Hector-Mason AIR Support Staff 3 Conference Convenor Local Conference Host 4 Published by: Adults Learning Mathematics (ALM) – A Research Forum. Organized by: American Institutes for Research Editorial Team: Anestine Hector-Mason Linda Jarlskog David Kaye ALM Conference Proceedings are an open access publication, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC-BY 4.0). Authors of published articles are the copyright holders of their articles and have granted to any third party, in advance and in perpetuity, the right to use, reproduce or disseminate the article, as long as the authors and source are cited. Further details about CC - BY licenses are available at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. These proceedings include both refereed and non-refereed papers. People writing papers for the conference were able to choose whether or not they wanted to go through the conference review process. Peer-reviewed papers are marked with an asterisk (*) next to the title in the table of contents. ISBN 978-91-639-3131-4 Format — PDF ISBN 978-91-639-3132-1 Format — Paperback This PDF version of the proceedings is available from the ALM website at http://www.alm-online.net/ A series of images of the conference and slides from the presentations of the speakers are also available on the same website. 5 Table of content About ALM 11 2014-2015 ALM Board of Trustees 13 Preface: About ALM 22 14 Acknowledgements 16 Keynote Speaker Abstracts Improving what we do for struggling adult numeracy students 18 Steve Hinds Mathematics in our lives 18 Freeman Hrabowski Aspiring through Education 18 Roosevelt Johnson Using Maths Eyes to Give Numeracy the Profile it Deserves 18 Terry Maguire Real-world problem solving through M in STEM 19 Padmanabhan Seshaiyer Unlikely minorities and STEM subjects 19 Rinske Stelwagen Numeracy: A prerequisite for sustainability 19 Marilyn Waite Presenter Articles * peer reviewed article Community among adult learners in a maths support centre setting 21 Anthony Brown, Anthony Cronin Making the most of PIAAC: Preliminary investigation of adults’ numeracy 28 practices through secondary analysis of the PIAAC dataset * Diana Coben, Barbara Miller-Reilly, Paul Satherley, David Earle Changing images of mathematics in contrasting learning situations for 42 students Diane Dalby 6 A ten year examination of the mathematical performance and learning styles 53 of mature students and traditional students in Ireland Fiona Faulkner Novice teachers reflect on their instructional practices while teaching adults 60 math * Lynda Ginsburg The intricacies of assessing numeracy: Investigating alternatives to word 67 problems * Kees Hoogland The liar paradox: Looking at our world through Bertrand Russel’s 80 mathematical eyes Conleth D. Hussey Survey of adult students with mathematical difficulties * 89 Linda Jarlskog Increasing accessibility of mathematics education through open sources 100 Marcus E. Jorgensen Mathematics in the Gabonese education system 107 Komlan Mensah Investigating the impact of literacy skills in the adult mathematics classroom 120 Mark Prendergast, Fiona Faulkner, Clare O’Hara ALM as chameleon: Tracing the evolution of the organization through its 129 literature Katherine Safford-Ramus Mathematics is a journey 135 Marcus Simkin Mathematical understanding and public advocacy: Upstaged by the Pope, 138 the Dalai Lama, President Obama, and even Neil Young! Donald Smith Our intuitions can mislead us: Contrasting intuitive and mathematical 147 understandings about chance gambling. Donald Smith Does adding mathematics to English language learners’ timetables improve 155 their acquisition of English? * Jenny Stacey 7 Presenter Abstracts Blended and active learning math in a mixed-setting classroom 162 Gisella Aitken-Shadle, Claire Finn CMAST and QEP: Developing 20/20 mathematical vision in a STEM 162 environment Corisma Akins, Shakira Hardison The effect of language and culture on the learning of mathematics 163 Darren Allen Logbook – From research tool towards learning tool in adult mathematics 163 education Charlotte Arkenback-Sundström Examining the mathematical literacy of 15-year olds and the numeracy skills 165 of the age cohort as adults Alka Arora, Emily Pawlowski Shifting from mathematical worksheets to meaningful tasks 165 Cynthia Bell Teaching functions and proportional relationships 165 Cynthia Bell Teaching matters! Turning high-quality standards into successful 165 mathematics learning Diane Briars Mathematics professional development with MOOCs 165 Delphinia Brown Making the transition from teacher-centered to student-centered instruction 166 in mathematics Ronnie L. Brown Visual thinking in adult learning using spatial intelligence 166 Arthur Conroy Putting and old head on young shoulders (Math teaching and learning) 167 Anthony Cronin 8 Inquiry learning and mathematics in the workplace 167 Diane Dalby Geometric tesselations: Travel with M.C. Escher to Italy, Spain, Morocco, 168 and Turkey Carol Desoe Promoting productive struggle 168 Fred Dillon Mathematics online: A success story 169 Margie Dunn “When will I ever use this stuff?” Making statistics relevant 169 Mary Gore Representing and using ratios in a common core context 170 Will Johnston Mathematics ancient and modern – Using the history of mathematics with 170 adult learners and in teacher education David Kaye It is instruction silly: Research-affirmed practices that make all the 171 difference Steve Leinwand U.S. adult numeracy skills in the 21st century workforce 171 Saida Mamedova Mathulous Mathionistas: The mathematics in fashion 172 Jacqueline Mogey Math: The deciding factor 172 Jacqueline Mogey Black male achievement in STEM: Impacting Lifelong trajectory of success 172 with an integrated mathematics education approach Fredric Navarre, Yvette Pearson-Weatherton Coping with math anxiety in college: From research to relief 173 Fred Peskoff, Leonid Khazanov The symbiotic relationship of research and practice (Topic group A and B) 173 Katherine Safford-Rasmus, David Kaye 9 An exploration and evaluation of “Maths eyes” projects and events 174 Aoife Smith, Terry Maguire, Niamh O’Meara, John O’Donoghue Middle school math teaching and learning 174 Michael Steele The role of historically black colleges