Dear Project RENEW Members,
As part of the Research and Evaluation Team, we welcome you to Project RENEW. RENEW is funded by the National Science Foundation and we are accountable to this agency for an evaluation of the quality and impact of the project.

In this questionnaire we ask questions about your background and your ideas about mathematics education. Your responses will provide important baseline data for the evaluation and will be combined with responses of the other teachers in the project. The data is for project evaluation purposes only. Please fill out this questionnaire and bring it with you to the institute.

Again, thank you for your thoughts and time,

Sarah Hough and Niki Sandoval, RENEW Evaluators.

Part I: Background Information

First Name: Last Name:
How many years have you been teaching?    

Do you have a teaching credential? Yes No
If yes, from which institution?

What other professional development projects are you involved in this year? (Please also include those that are district mandated)

Part II: Doing Mathematics. Each of the statements below refers to "doing mathematics". For each item select from the menu the extent to which you agree with the statement. (1 = strongly agree, 2 = agree, 3 = not sure, 4 = disagree, 5 = strongly disagree)

asdf Strongly Agree Agree Not Sure Disagree Strongly Disagree
1. When you do mathematics there is always a right way to go about doing things and answers are not open to interpretation.
2. Investigating new situations and relationships among concepts are important parts of doing mathematics.
3. Some people are better at doing mathematics than others because they have a certain kind of mathematical mind.
4. Collaborating with other people to share ideas and verify conjectures is an important part of doing mathematics.
5. Doing mathematics mostly involves memorizing facts and procedures.
6. Doing mathematics is a step-by-step mechanical process.
7. When doing or applying mathematics it is not important to understand why a procedure works only that it will give you the right answer.
8. When doing mathematics, if you don't understand something you need to get help from a text book or the instructor.
9. When doing mathematics you are discovering patterns and making generalizations
10. Mathematics is most often a solitary activity.
11. Unlike most other subjects, when you are doing mathematics you are always dealing with known quantities.
12. Doing mathematics is a creative process.
13. There are many ways to go about solving most problems in mathematics.
14. In mathematics everything goes together in a logical and consistent way.
15. In mathematics I need to memorize how to do most things
16. Mathematics has never made too much sense to me even though I can often get the right answer.
17. I am interested in knowing the whys of mathematics (why a formula works or how to derive it for myself)
18. I usually rely on the textbook or instructor to tell me how to go about solving mathematics problems.
19. In mathematics I can usually figure things out for myself.
20. If I'm given a problem that is different from the examples in the book I can usually figure it out for myself.

PART III: Teaching Mathematics. Each of the statements below refers to TEACHING mathematics. For each item select from the menu the extent to which you agree with the statement (1 = strongly agree, 2 = agree, 3 = not sure, 4 = disagree, 5 = strongly disagree).

asdf Strongly Agree Agree Not Sure Disagree Strongly Disagree
1. Using cooperative learning techniques in mathematics instruction is not appropriate for high achieving students.
2. In mathematics students cannot understand high level concepts until they have mastered the "basic" steps of a given procedure or algorithm.
3. When teaching mathematics the teacher should demonstrate the mathematics steps clearly and slowly and then give students time to learn the steps by repetition.
4. Students generally learn mathematics best in classes/groups with students of similar abilities.
5. The best way for students to learn mathematics is to do many similar types of problems until they get the procedure down.
6. It is better to teach mathematical ideas directly to students than to let then figure out relationships for themselves.
7. When working with slow learners in mathematics teachers should focus a lot of instruction on "basic skills."
8. To learn math students should be given plenty of opportunities to engage in inquiry oriented activities.
9. Encouraging students to make conjectures in mathematics is not necessary because the purpose of instruction is to get them to remember and apply math facts.
10. Encouraging students to explore their own methods of solving a problem is as important as teaching mathematical formulas and procedures.
11. When students do not understand something in mathematics it is because they have not had enough practice.
12. When teaching mathematics teachers should assume that all students have the capacity to understand high level concepts

PART IV: What Are Your Needs? Please indicate how well prepared you feel to do each of the following:

  Not adequately prepared
 Somewhat prepared Fairly well prepared Very well prepared
a. Lead a class of students using investigative strategies
b. Manage a class of students engaged in hands-on/project based work.
c. Help students take responsibility for their own learning.
d. Recognize and respond to student diversity.
e. Encourage students' interest in mathematics.
f. Use strategies that specifically encourage participation of minorities and females in mathematics.

Please let us know, in as much detail as you can, what specific support you would like from this project.

 

 

!!!!!!!!THANKS VERY MUCH FOR YOUR TIME!!!!!!!