Gender, Beliefs, and Achievement in Remedial College-Level Mathematics

Introduction Although the topic of student participation in mathematics has received attention in the higher education literature [for example, 1, 4, 14, 36], most such studies involve the analysis of trends and national data sets. Despite calls for a higher education research agenda that places greater emphasis on learning in college classrooms [5, 29, 30], few studies examine the phenomenon from the perspective of a specific campus or course setting. In particular, few analyses exist of factors that relate to student success in remedial college-level mathematics courses. Such courses, intended to prepare students with weak mathematics backgrounds for more advanced mathematics courses, are common on university campuses. Unfortunately, fewer than half the students who take these courses are successful on their first attempt [13], and a disproportionately high percentage of those who fail are women and minorities [28]. Because mathematics is a prerequisite for many professions, these courses serve as "gate keepers" that effectively filter many students out of careers they might otherwise pursue [34]. In brief, many students realize the importance of mathematics for meeting career aspirations. College remedial mathematics courses, however, are one barrier to meeting career aspirations that many find difficult to overcome. Although a number of factors are responsible for this, beliefs about learning and doing mathematics seem to be a key to many students' inability to focus themselves enough to "survive" mathematics courses that they see as both emotionally and cognitively difficult [26, 35]. Beliefs and Mathematics In 1985 Silver noted that "beliefs about mathematics" was an underrepresented theme in research on how students learn mathematical problem solving. Since 1985, however, the topic of beliefs has become a common area of research because it might explain gender differences in mathematics achievement [19, 26, 31], and because beliefs appear to have a substantial impact on behaviors of students [17, 21, 24, 39, 40] as well as teachers [45, 46]. Research on the beliefs of remedial college-level students is still limited, although it is now receiving some attention. An exploratory study of the relationship between beliefs and achievement for remedial college-level students found that men and women did not differ significantly in their beliefs, but that beliefs were more strongly related to course grade for women than for men [43]. In another example, in a qualitative study, Mau [25] found that instructors of a remedial college-level mathematics course wanted their students to succeed but believed that many of those students were unwilling to put forth the time and effort necessary to pass what the the instructors perceived to be a relatively easy course. The students, in contrast, believed they were working quite hard and that course expectations were unreasonable. One individual even called the remedial mathematics class the "course from hell" because of the pace at which she was expected to master new material. A possible explanation for the high level of stress the course created was found in exploring how students were spending their time. In Mau's [25] study, many of the students believed that simply memorizing formulas and algorithms was the best way to master course content. In brief, students held "invalid" beliefs about what they should do to master mathematical concepts; those beliefs appeared to be a major reason for difficulty with the course. In a recent review of research on affective factors in mathematics education, McLeod [26] described four categories of beliefs studied in relationship to the teaching and learning of mathematics. The first category, beliefs about mathematics, included the belief that mathematics is a discipline consisting primarily of rules and procedures. The second category focused on beliefs about oneself as a learner of mathematics, self-confidence in learning mathematics, and beliefs about the relationship of gender to interest or performance in mathematics. …