Search for: All records

A modified, bilingual Attitudes Toward Mathematics Inventory (ATMI) instrument was administered to 1,258 high school students in South Texas in an NSF-funded project on informal learning of mathematics and near peer mentoring. We explore students’ survey response behaviors and examine the existence of careless and insufficient effort (CIE) responses. This is empirical research for handling the challenge of CIE responses that leads to improved survey data quality, thus eventually validating the intervention effect of the mathematical informal learning project. 

Research in mentoring has shown that students may at times be more willing and able to absorb information that is delivered to them by their near-peers, rather than by traditional figures of authority, like teachers and professors. In this study, underrepresented minority high school students participated in an informal learning experience that was led by college students who were near-peers to the high schoolers. Students were engaged by participating in interactive MathShows, following a Math Social Media Campaign, and attending a summer Math Internship. Participants in the quantitative component of the study included N = 559 U.S. high schoolers who were from predominantly (99%) Hispanic ethnic backgrounds. The qualitative component of the study involved another 19 students from the same school. The mixed methods study addresses associations between high schoolers’ attitudes toward mathematics and their identity alignment, as well as classes of reasons that students gave for their identity alignment. Interactions with the college near-peers that occurred during the experiential learning intervention are also discussed. Results of this study address the goal of broadening participation of underrepresented student groups in STEM careers.