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Browsing by Subject "African American female students"
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Item A Story of African American Students as Mathematics Learners(Ismail Sahin, 2014-07-01) Morton, Crystal HillEducational systems throughout the world serve students from diverse populations. Often students from minority populations (i.e. racial, ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic) face unique challenges when learning in contexts based on the cultural traditions and learning theories of the majority population. These challenges often leave minority populations labeled as incompetent, unmotivated, and cognitively deficit. In the United States, African American female students are among minority populations who are often positioned as deficit when compared to the majority White population. This study investigates middle school African American female perceptions of themselves as learners and students’ knowledge of the meaning of ratio, proportionality, and how to apply and explain their application of proportionality concepts by examining written problem solving strategies over a three-year period. Students’ responses are analyzed according to the strategies they used to reach their final solution. The categories of strategies include no-response, guess and check, additive build up with and without a pictorial representation, and multiplicative. The majority of students in this study 86.5%, 69.2%, and 68.6% did not attempt or demonstrated no understanding in year one, two, and three respectively. Additionally, participants reported positive dispositions about themselves as mathematics learners.Item African American Female Students’ Mathematics Experiences(Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, 2013-04-05) Berhane, Saba Na'Imah; Morton, CrystalGiven the paucity of studies that focus specifically on African American female students in relation to mathematical development, this study is an effort to address the gap in empirical knowledge. Using interview data, this qualitative pilot study sought to understand African American female middle school students’ perceptions of: (1) mathematics; (2) themselves as learners and (3) their mathematics learning experiences. This study focused on the middle school years, because it is during these years that students solidify their conception of self as mathematics learners, develop stable beliefs about their ability to do mathematics and the importance of mathematics. Common themes emerged from the data, including strong identities as learners and positive attitudes towards academic success in general and in mathematics.