PROCEEDINGS OF THE 23RD ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON RESEARCH IN UNDERGRADUATE MATHEMATICS EDUCATION
2020
Boston, Massachusetts
A comparison of students’ quantitative reasoning skills in STEM and non-STEM math pathways
Page: 1254
This study investigated students’ Quantitative Reasoning (QR) in STEM and Non-STEM math pathways using the Qualitative Literacy & Reasoning Assessment (QLRA). Participants were students who were enrolled in at least one college-level math pathway course at a large public institution in southeastern U.S. The results showed that STEM students scored, on average, higher than Non-STEM students. Both STEM and Non-STEM students who were further along in their math sequence had higher QLRA scores than those taking the gateway math courses in that pathway. However, students overall had relatively low QLRA scores, with an average score of 24%. These results indicate there is still a great deal of improvement to be made in students’ QR skills and that the math pathways initiative to align math curriculum with career fields and degree majors, while very important, does not invariably address quantitative reasoning.