The near-peer mathematical mentoring cycle: studying the impact of outreach on high school students’ attitudes toward mathematics

Authors

Aaron T. Wilson, The University of Texas Rio Grande ValleyFollow
Sergey Grigorian, The University of Texas Rio Grande ValleyFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-2019

Abstract

College students may be seen as near-peers to high school students and high school students are often able to see themselves in the college students who are but one step ahead. This nearness in maturity and educational level may place college students in a particularly powerful position when it comes to reaching out to high school students to promote higher education in math and science. In this study college students gave dynamic mathematics outreach presentations, MathShows, to minority and low-income high school students in a mid-sized public school district on the U.S. border with Mexico. The study investigated the impacts of this sort of outreach work on high school students’ attitudes towards mathematics using a mathematics attitudes survey. Results, obtained from N = 306 participants, showed statistically significant improvements in almost all components of mathematical attitudes, with less of an effect on the component of self-confidence in doing mathematics. Differences in impacts by specific student subgroups are all discussed.

Comments

Original published version available at https://doi.org/10.1080/0020739X.2018.1467508

Recommended Citation

Wilson, Aaron T., and Sergey Grigorian. "The near-peer mathematical mentoring cycle: studying the impact of outreach on high school students’ attitudes toward mathematics." International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology 50, no. 1 (2019): 46-64. https://doi.org/10.1080/0020739X.2018.1467508

Publication Title

International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology

DOI

10.1080/0020739X.2018.1467508