conclusion for project on female Mathematician
Answers
I have submitted my literature review to my advisor for the last time! Here in my last post I won’t go over my literature review in full detail since I’ve already done that in updates one, two, and three, but as a quick summary I looked into the effects of different mathematical pedagogies on female mathematical perceptions (e.g. confidence, interest, self-assessed ability). I split the review into three sections – unconscious pedagogy, formal pedagogy, and informal pedagogy. Unconscious pedagogy looked at the underlying attributes of mathematics learning such as stereotype threat and teacher biases. Formal pedagogy addressed the happenings inside of a classroom such as collaboration versus individual work, cooperation versus competition, textbooks, assessments, and alternative methods of teaching such as online schooling and single-sex education. Informal pedagogy emphasized the effects of out-of-classroom influences such as parents, peers, mentors, school clubs, and summer camps. I combined work from many different researchers to find connections between these things and how they combine to create certain effects on female mathematical perceptions.
As this was my first time completing research of any kind, I can say that it has been a wonderful first experience. From reading articles on my topic, to traveling to Nashville for a mathematics education conference, to putting it altogether in the end to create a final work, I have enjoyed the many steps of the process and have had a very encouraging advisor to mentor me along the way. In the conclusion of my review, I address possibilities for additional research. As most of the research I discovered focused on K-12 education, I would be interested in finding out more about the affects of certain pedagogical practices at the tertiary level. Even if the percentage of female math majors has overall increased, in the last decade we are starting to see a decline and the retention rate for math majors overall is not the best. What kinds of practices could be implemented into a tertiary school setting to further communicate mathematics as relatable and interesting? The goal is to find a mathmatics pedagogy that is gender-inclusive, but this shouldn’t be only focused on K-12 but should span through all levels of schooling.
And with that my blogging is complete and I look forward to presenting my research sometime this Fall!