Maine Center for Research in STEM Education (RiSE Center)
Colloquium Series
Presents
Dr. Allison Dorko, Oklahoma State University
Monday, April 1, 2024, 3:00–4:00 p.m.
Hill Auditorium (ESRB) and Zoom (link available by email)
Refreshments provided
Assimilation and Accommodation: Learning from Online Homework
Abstract:
Although homework constitutes much of undergraduate students’ interaction with mathematical tasks, we know little about (1) what students learn from homework or (2) how they learn it. I will share a study that employed Piagetian learning theory to study (1) by defining learning as accommodation and (2) by defining “how they learn it” as equilibration. The data corpus is comprised of video recordings of 11 students who collectively did 40 online homework assignments, spanning a variety of algebra and precalculus content. Students’ learning included refining their procedures for finding the intercepts of lines; that the answer to “solve for x” can be a formula; that finding the greatest output for an input of entails considering the behavior of the function in addition to the value of f(c); and that concavity is not synonymous with increasing/decreasing. Their equilibrations include attending to what is given and what is unknown; making sense of correct answers; leveraging problem contexts to inform mathematical activity; and repeating a mathematical activity in a different representation.
Bio:
Allison Dorko is a Teaching Assistant Professor at Oklahoma State University. She is a proud graduate of the U Maine MST program, after which she obtained a PhD in Mathematics Education from Oregon State University. Allison spends as much time in Maine as possible.
To be added to the Colloquium email list and receive the Zoom link and passcode, please email the RiSE Center: risecenter@maine.edu.
To request a reasonable accessibility accommodation to participate, please submit a request form and/or contact the RiSE Center: risecenter@maine.edu or 207-581-4672.