MTE 598: RUME 2—Research in Undergraduate Mathematics Education 2

Instructor: Pat Thompson
Meetings: Tuesday, 4:00 PM - 6:30 PM
Office hours: By appointment
Course Location: ECA 385 
Office Location: ECA 381

Syllabus

The objectives of RUME 2 are in line with those of RUME 1. To remind you of RUME 1 objectives, they were:

By the end of the semester you will be able to locate, read, discuss, criticize, and draw practical conclusions from research articles. You will gain a broad perspective on areas of past and current mathematics education research. In particular, you will learn about select constructs that have been developed, and the work that constructs do for us in research, theory, and practice.

RUME 2 will have an increased focus on theories in mathematics education and relationships between theory and research methodology.

Grading
Participants must satisfactorily engage in and complete all seminar activities in order to receive a passing grade in the course.

There will be three categories of grades: Précis, Major Project, and Final Exam (graded separately as Qualifying Exam-Part 2). Grades will be calculated thus: 0.2*(Ave Précis) + 0.5*(Course Project) + 0.3*(Final Exam) and assigned according to the ranges below.

0.90 - 1.00 A
0.80 - 0.89 B
0.70 - 0.79 C

Plusses and minuses will be assigned according to placement within a range.

Course Organization

RUME 2 will cohere around four themes:

1. The nature of theories in mathematics education
2. Specific theories used in mathematics education research
3. The interplay of theories and research methodologies; the role of methodology in providing warrants for empirical claims
4. The application of theory in conducting empirical studies; the feedback of empirical results in the refinement of theory