PROCEEDINGS OF THE 18TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON RESEARCH IN UNDERGRADUATE MATHEMATICS EDUCATION
2015
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Using journals to support student learning: The case for an elementary number theory course
Page: 960
We present results from a study that examined the use of journal writing by undergraduates in an Honor’s Number Theory course and how the journals supported students’ learning, attitudinal changes, and proof writing. The 17 undergraduates in this course submitted weekly journals online to their instructor and reflected on their mathematical learning. The instructor provided comments to each of the students’ journal submissions that informed him of each student’s successes, challenges, issues, and questions. We analyzed the journals and share our preliminary findings on what the journal writing revealed about students’ learning and how their mathematical understanding developed over a semester. We include results of the pre-post survey of student attitudes toward mathematics along with interviews of 5 of the students that give additional insight into their experiences in the course. Future work will examine the uses of journals in other courses, and different ways journals support student learning