An Uphill Battle: Incorporating cooperative learning using a largely individualized curriculum

In this action research study of my classroom of 8th grade mathematics, I investigated if cooperative learning could be an effective teaching method with the Saxon curriculum. Saxon curriculum is largely individualized in that most lessons could be completed without much group interaction. I discovered that cooperative learning was very successful with the curriculum as long as it was structured. Ninety-five percent of the students in the study preferred to work in groups, and I observed mathematical communication grow with most of the students. As a result of this research, I plan to continue to incorporate cooperative learning into my mathematics classroom. I will use cooperative learning with all of my mathematics classes, even the ones that do not use the Saxon curriculum. I believe in the power of working together.

Cooperative Learning in Relation to Problem Solving in the Mathematics Classroom

In this action research study of my classroom of 5th grade mathematics, I investigated cooperative learning and how it is related to problem solving as well as written and oral communication. I discovered that cooperative learning has a positive impact on students’ abilities in problem solving and their overall impression of mathematics and group work. I also found that my students’ communication skills improved in oral explanations of their work. As a result of this research I plan to continue my implementation of cooperative learning in my classroom as a general method of teaching. I also plan to continue to use cooperative learning in working with my students to increase their achievement in problem solving and communication of mathematics.

Reading as a Learning Strategy for Mathematics

In this action research study of 55 sophomore and junior students in my Algebra II/Trigonometry classrooms, I investigated a reading strategy of learning mathematics. Students were given background information about reading and explored the benefits of reading for themselves. Next, students were taught to read their textbook, analyzing one section of the textbook at a time. Throughout the research project, students were given reading guides to fill out during class with whole class discussion following the reading time. I discovered that students are able to read a mathematics textbook with understanding and students who are gone for activities can learn independently. Teacher observations, student surveys, and student interviews provide quantitative evidence of increased student understanding and achievement. As a result of this research, I plan to continue utilizing the reading guides and incorporating reading as a method of learning mathematics within my classrooms.

Bandit-Based Algorithms for Budgeted Learning

We explore the problem of budgeted machine learning, in which the learning algorithm has free access to the training examples’ labels but has to pay for each attribute that is specified. This learning model is appropriate in many areas, including medical applications. We present new algorithms for choosing which attributes to purchase of which examples in the budgeted learning model based on algorithms for the multi-armed bandit problem. All of our approaches outperformed the current state of the art. Furthermore, we present a new means for selecting an example to purchase after the attribute is selected, instead of selecting an example uniformly at random, which is typically done. Our new example selection method improved performance of all the algorithms we tested, both ours and those in the literature.