Institute/Session Summary:

The findings of an ongoing study on the effects of tutoring on the attitudes of developmental mathematics students towards mathematics and their mathematical growth will be presented. Kennesaw State University offers free tutoring in a drop-in math-lab setting. Typically, developmental mathematics students come to our university with negative attitudes towards mathematics and low confidence of their abilities to be successful in a mathematics class.

Quantitative findings of this mixed-methods study comparing developmental mathematics students that utilized the tutoring service with those that did not was presented at the 2006 CRLA conference in Austin, Texas. Pre and post treatment surveys, student characteristics, and grades were used to determine if there was a difference in self-perceptions and attitudes towards mathematics between the two groups, and if tutoring had a positive effect on the study group.

The Qualitative portion of this study to be presented at the 2007 CRLA conference will discuss an investigation of the relationships and interactions in a developmental mathematics tutoring session. Through interviews and observations, insight will be gained into the following questions:

1. What are the attitudes of developmental mathematics students towards mathematics after participating in tutoring sessions? 
2. How do the students describe their experiences in the tutoring sessions?
3. How do the students describe their mathematical growth? The data collected will be viewed from a social constructivist theoretical framework. The results of this research can inform higher education institutes on directions and value of tutoring developmental students in mathematics and provide insight into students’ perspectives on tutoring.

The researchers, Robert Birrell and Pinder Naidu, are assistant professors of mathematics at Kennesaw State University. Pinder has been a developmental mathematics instructor  and the director of the Mathematics Lab for the past ten years. Robert has spent the last eight years teaching remedial and freshmen mathematics at Kennesaw State University. Both Pinder and Robert have worked extensively with both developmental mathematics students and the tutors in the Math Lab. Their research interests have focused on how to improve the attitudes towards mathematics of remedial college mathematics students.

Presenter1 Name: Robert Birrell
Presenter1 Institution: Kennesaw State University
Presenter1 Bio: Robert Birrell is an assistant professor of mathematics at Kennesaw State University. He has a master’s degree in mathematics from California State University, Northridge and an education specialist’s degree in mathematics education from Georgia State University. He taught high school mathematics for sixteen years and has spent the last eight years teaching remedial and freshmen mathematics at Kennesaw State University. His research interests focus on how to improve the attitudes towards mathematics of remedial college mathematics students.

Presenter2 Name: Pinder Naidu
Presenter2 Institution: Kennesaw State University
Presenter2 Bio: Pinder Naidu has a mathematics degree from Leicester University in England and a master’s degree in Business from the University of Texas at San Antonio. She is currently nearing completion of a mathematics education PhD from Georgia State University. She has been teaching and tutoring developmental mathematics students for the last sixteen years. The last ten years she has been at Kennesaw State University as a developmental mathematics instructor and as the director of the Mathematics Lab. She is a tenured faculty member in the University College at Kennesaw State.