Faculty Viewpoints on Teaching Quantway®

• Main Authors: Heather Howington, Thomas Hartfield, Cinnamon Hillyard
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: National Numeracy Network 2015-01-01
• Series: Numeracy
• Subjects: developmental math; faculty attitudes; mindset; quantway; algebra
• Online Access: http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/numeracy/vol8/iss1/art10/

Quantway is a quantitative reasoning-based pathway for developmental math that has been developed as an alternative to the traditional remedial algebra sequence. To explore the experiences of faculty involved with Quantway, we interviewed eight individuals who have taught the course in the past year to survey their attitudes and opinions about students in their classes, the materials and pedagogies in use, and the collegial interaction of networked faculty. Faculty were selected with the intention of gathering a broad set of opinions resulting from differences of location, experience, and other factors. In this paper, we summarize those interviews by identifying common themes reported by the faculty that highlight strengths and challenges of teaching Quantway. Themes include perceptions about changes in student engagement and attitudes as well as changes in their own mindset; the evolution of teaching strategies and materials used inside and outside the classroom; and the relevance of connections between faculty at different institutions involved in the project.