Improving Quantitative Reasoning through General Education Science Courses

This project aims to serve the national interest by exploring how general education science classes affect undergraduate students’ numerical skills and attitudes about mathematics. Numerical skills such as estimation and graph reading have strong positive relationships with science literacy, understanding of risk, and sound financial decision making.

Introductory college science courses for non-majors serve an important role in improving numerical literacy, as they reach a large proportion of non-STEM major undergraduates. Previous work indicates that students’ quantitative reasoning skills and attitudes also affect how they view and participate in STEM majors and careers. This project aims to increase understanding of effective practices in developing numeracy in general education science courses.

To do so, it will survey general education science courses across the nation, using the Quantitative Reasoning for College Science (QuaRCS) survey. Results of this survey will identify science courses in which, over the semester, students show greater improvements in quantitative reasoning and attitudes toward mathematics. A small group of the instructors of these highly effective courses will be invited to participate in a working group to create new tools for numeracy instruction in introductory science classes.

Improving numeracy instruction in general education science courses has the potential to broaden mastery of core quantitative skills everyone needs for making decisions in today’s complex world.

The project’s overall goal is to identify rigorous, research-validated strategies for effectively teaching numeracy through science courses. Innumeracy and poor attitudes toward mathematics are pervasive challenges in undergraduate science education that disproportionately affect students from underrepresented and underserved groups. The project has two specific aims: (1) to better understand the landscape of introductory science courses, including the ways in which numerical skills, demographics, and affective variables such as math anxiety and confidence interact; and (2) to examine the practices of instructors whose students show improvements in numerical skills or attitudes about mathematics over the course of a semester.

The validated QuaRCS assessment instrument is the centerpiece of the project’s large national study. The data from the survey will enable identification of instructors who are making a difference in one or more of the three QuaRCS measurable student outcomes: the ability to correctly solve quantitative reasoning problems in real-world contexts; attitudes toward mathematics and associated numerical self-efficacy; and metacognitive awareness of their own numerical skills.

Key research questions include: (1) To what extent are demonstrated correlations between demographic variables and score on the assessment mitigated by affective variables such as self-efficacy, perceived utility of mathematics, self-reported effort, and math anxiety level; and (2) How often do introductory science instructors foster improvements in the student outcomes measured by QuaRCS. This work will represent a significant step toward understanding effective classroom practices and pedagogical techniques for helping students improve numerical and scientific literacy.

Additionally, the project will continue the ongoing process of improving the QuaRCS instrument, in particular working to ensure that the survey items are culturally relevant to a broad cross-section of students. The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.