Master's Theses

Department

Math

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to research the comparative contributions of arithmetic review and consumer mathematics as contents of a general mathematics course for schools that could offer only one general mathematics course at the ninth-grade level. Because of the close relationship of the ancillary questions: who should be taught general mathematics and how should general mathematics be taught, these were also considered. The study was performed in a typical rural high school and the population was judged to be typical for general mathematics. Subjects were divided into two treatment groups (arithmetic review and consumer mathematics) and pre- and post- collection of data were carried out to assess changes with regard to the dependent variables post-test scores on a computational skills test, a problem-solving test, a mathematical attitude opinionnaire, and the California Test of Personality--over the duration of the study. Because of differences in mean scores on pre-tests, the covariance method for analysis was used to test for significance of any differences between scores of treatment groups on post-test data. Based on the population and the conditions of this study, the most important conclusions reached were: arithmetic review is a better content than consumer mathematics for a general mathematics class when the primary aim is to obtain an increase in computational skill; consumer mathematics is a better choice of content than arithmetic review for a general mathematics class when the primary aim is to obtain an increase in attitude toward mathematics. Differences were not found to be significant on any other dependent variables.

Keywords

Mathematics, Comparison, Personality tests, California Psychological Inventory, Secondary education, High schools

Advisor

Dr. Elton Beougher

Date of Award

Summer 1973

Document Type

Thesis - campus only access

Rights

© The Author(s)

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