Empowering Students in Developmental Math: Research on the Impacts of Technology-Driven Instruction

• In Event: 34.052 - Community College Teaching and Learning

Abstract

Students requiring remediation are most at risk for dropout and academic disengagement. Innovative technology-driven instruction raises concerns about student learning and faculty-student engagement. However, our findings from focus groups with students at colleges in Tennessee suggest that these concerns may be unfounded: Students expressed that the technology-driven instruction contributed to greater engagement and more substantive engagement with their professors. Further, this novel style of instruction and engagement contributed to lowered barriers to math and developed their agency. This paper examines a novel instructional setting that upends the traditional faculty-student dynamic in higher education through the eyes of the students.

Authors

• Angela Boatman, Vanderbilt University

• Jenna Weber Kramer, Vanderbilt University