Building mathematics skills in a vocational context

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What were the aims of the study and how was it designed?

The researchers noted that many American high school students, especially those enrolled in vocational courses, did not have the maths skills needed for those jobs or for college entrance requirements. This pilot study aimed to find out:

whether teaching mathematical skills within a real-life context helped to develop maths skills which could be transferred to a specifically mathematical context; and
whether time spent focusing on the maths content of vocational courses depressed the students’ knowledge and/or skills of other aspects of the vocational subject.

The study involved nearly 4000 students aged 16 to18, enrolled on six different vocational courses, and 236 teachers, of whom 114 implemented the experiment and 122 acted as a control group. The teachers all volunteered to take part and were randomly assigned to the experimental and control groups. The 114 experimental teachers paired up with a maths colleague who helped them throughout the project. These pairs worked together at a professional development workshop to identify the maths concepts used within their own vocational subject and to develop between five and ten lessons that would emphasise these.

The researchers tested all the students before and after the trial term with a standardised maths test and a test on vocational knowledge and skills. They split each cohort of students into three groups and used a different maths tests with each of them. Each of the maths tests examined different aspects of maths. They were:

ACCUPLACER – a widely used college placement examination;
TerraNova – a traditional maths exam used by many states as a basic skills examination; and
WorkKeys – an applied maths examination originally developed for employers to identify suitable candidates for employment or promotion.

The researchers also collected additional data from surveys, interviews, focus groups, class observations and teaching artefacts. The maths and CTE teacher partners met each other before and after each special lesson. The after-lesson meeting followed a structured pattern of debriefing and the maths teachers submitted a written debriefing report to the researchers.

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Research Home Themes \| Find digests \| About the digests resources glossary researchers contact TRIPS Introduction How much did the students’ maths improve? How did the teachers prepare for and implement the project? What was the typical pattern of a CTE lesson designed to support students’ maths? How did the pairs of teachers evaluate the new lessons? What did the researchers believe might improve the success of a future programme? What were the aims of the study and how was it designed? What are the implications of the study? Where can I find out more? Send us your feedback Collated digests To view/remove/add notes and save your collated digests click here Get Word Reader Building mathematics skills in a vocational context This digest found in Mathematics Send to a friend Word doc 70KB Printer friendly Collate for later What were the aims of the study and how was it designed? The researchers noted that many American high school students, especially those enrolled in vocational courses, did not have the maths skills needed for those jobs or for college entrance requirements. This pilot study aimed to find out: whether teaching mathematical skills within a real-life context helped to develop maths skills which could be transferred to a specifically mathematical context; and whether time spent focusing on the maths content of vocational courses depressed the students’ knowledge and/or skills of other aspects of the vocational subject. The study involved nearly 4000 students aged 16 to18, enrolled on six different vocational courses, and 236 teachers, of whom 114 implemented the experiment and 122 acted as a control group. The teachers all volunteered to take part and were randomly assigned to the experimental and control groups. The 114 experimental teachers paired up with a maths colleague who helped them throughout the project. These pairs worked together at a professional development workshop to identify the maths concepts used within their own vocational subject and to develop between five and ten lessons that would emphasise these. The researchers tested all the students before and after the trial term with a standardised maths test and a test on vocational knowledge and skills. They split each cohort of students into three groups and used a different maths tests with each of them. Each of the maths tests examined different aspects of maths. They were: ACCUPLACER – a widely used college placement examination; TerraNova – a traditional maths exam used by many states as a basic skills examination; and WorkKeys – an applied maths examination originally developed for employers to identify suitable candidates for employment or promotion. The researchers also collected additional data from surveys, interviews, focus groups, class observations and teaching artefacts. The maths and CTE teacher partners met each other before and after each special lesson. The after-lesson meeting followed a structured pattern of debriefing and the maths teachers submitted a written debriefing report to the researchers.