Colin Carmichael

Analysis of Student Beliefs in a Tertiary Preparatory Mathematics Course.

Every year approximately 800 students enrol in the tertiary preparatory course TPP7181 at the University of Southern Queensland. Successful completion of this course will allow students to enrol in either further preparatory level mathematics courses or undergraduate study. For many of the students enrolled in this course, the study of mathematics was undertaken quite some time ago and usually in a school setting. Drop out rates for this course are quite high and it is hypothesized that motivation may be a key factor in determining student success or otherwise. In this study scales assessing self-efficacy were utilized in an attempt to gauge aspects of the motivation of students enrolled in the course. Initial results suggest that only specific measures of student confidence predict their performance and that both gender and age mediate the strength of this prediction.

Measuring Middle School Students' Interest in Statistical Literacy

The following paper describes the development of an instrument designed to assess middle school students’ interest in statistical literacy. The paper commences with a review of the literature as it relates to interest in this context and then proposes a theoretical model upon which the proposed instrument is based. The Rasch Rating Scale model is then applied to student responses to items in the instrument and fit statistics are analysed in order to assess the extent to which these responses conform to the requirements of the measurement model. The paper then presents evidence, including interview data, to support the validity of interpretations that can be made from the proposed instrument. The findings suggest that the proposed instrument provides a theoretically sound measure of middle school students’ interest for statistical literacy that will be useful for the evaluation of interventions aimed at developing these students’ statistical literacy.

Parental influences on primary school children’s mathematics achievement: Insights from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC)

Results from international mathematics tests are focussing the attention of national leaders on the learning of mathematics in the primary years. With this attention, comes the need to explore the factors that contribute to and impede this learning. Though much of this focus is on classroom practices, it is timely to examine the important influence that parents have on their childrens achievement. This paper reports on a secondary analysis of data from a large longitudinal study in Australia; in particular, the effectiveness of Australian parents’ involvement in their childrens homework. The results suggest that the actual help with homework has, on average, a negative effect on childrens achievement even after controlling for earlier achievement. Significantly, however, the other types of involvement, such as provision of a good home environment, have positive effects on achievement. The implications of these findings are also discussed.