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Additional Online Case Studies & Appendices | |
“Assessing Quantitative Literacy Needs across the University” M. Paul Latiolais, Allan Collins, Zahra
Baloch
Portland State University Portland State
University has engaged in several initiatives aimed at determining what
graduates need to know and be able to do when they graduate both departmentally
and in general. Mathematical skills
have consistently come up as a clear need of students, expressed both by
faculty and students alike. What that
means as it is translated from discipline to discipline is not yet clear. The quantitative literacy
research team was organized in the Fall of 2001 as part of the University’s
assessment initiative. The first
objective of the quantitative literacy research team is to develop strategies
to help departments identify the mathematical (and statistics) needs of their
students. The second objective is to
articulate the mathematical needs of students in consistent ways to identify
the common needs of all students across disciplines. Toward those ends the research team has developed and piloted two
“Quantitative Literacy” surveys based on the book MATHEMATICS and DEMOCRACY: The Case for Quantitative Literacy. The first survey is a faculty
survey, intended as the first step in a conversation with departments about what
the faculty feel are the mathematical needs of its students. The second survey is a student survey
which asks the students what they feel they need. The Case Study will present the
two surveys, our experiences with faculty in four departments and how students
have so far responded. References MATHEMATICS
and DEMOCRACY: The Case for Quantitative Literacy, |