Assessment : 2013 - 2014 : Educational Programs :
Mathematics MA
2 Goals 2 Objectives 2 Indicators 2 Criteria 2 Findings 2 Actions
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GOAL: Deliver A Curriculum With Appropriate Discipline Specific Knowledge
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Objective
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Understanding Mathematical Structures
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Students will prove theorems or solve problems or explain concepts in the following core areas
- abstract algebra structures such as groups, rings, fields, functions, homomorphisms, and isomorphisms.
- differential and integral calculus
- probability and statistics, particularly inferential statistics, and
- transformational geometry to include isometrics and non-isometric transformations such as circles of inversion.
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Indicator
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MA Comprehensive Oral Examination
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Students in the MA program will take an oral examination over the four areas covered in the objective. The oral examination will be scored by a committee of faculty using a rubric developed and approved by department faculty.
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Successful Completion Of Comprehensive Exam.
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100% of the MA students will receive a grade of "Pass" or "High Pass" on each of the four areas according to the attached rubric.
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| Finding |
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2013-2014 Oral Examination Results
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Two MA students took their oral examinations. One student received a "high pass" on all four of her content areas. The second student received "high pass" on one area (algebra) and "pass" on the other three
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Actions for Objective:
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Comprehensive Oral Examination
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Graduate faculty are satisfied that the oral comprehensive examination is suitable for our needs. That is, it gives us a valid measure of our students' progress towards completion of their degree. For this reason, we will continue to administer these exams and strive for a 100% pass rate.
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GOAL: Develop Research Skills
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Objective
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Demonstrate Research Skills
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Students completing the MA in Mathematics will demonstrate research skills.
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Indicator
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Research Project Assessment
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MA students complete an independent research project. The student works with a supervising professor who describes the oversees and evaluates the work required of the student. A grade is assigned based on the individual requirements set forth by the supervising professor.
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80% Or Better On Project Assessment
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Students will be rated at least 80% on the project rubric.
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| Finding |
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Research Projects, 2013-2014
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Two students completed their MA projects in 2013-2014, both received a grade above 90%.
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Actions for Objective:
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The MA research project is still a excellent capstone experience for our students. Care needs to be taken to make sure that the project supervision is shared equitably among the graduate faculty.
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Previous Cycle's "Plan for Continuous Improvement"
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We plan to add two new courses to the MA core and continue to experiment with additional hybrid online courses.
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Update on Previous Cycle's "Plan for Continuous Improvement"
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We have decided to leave the MA core at 4 courses and students in the program will continue to take their oral comprehensive examination based on these courses. However, we are adding two additional courses for our MA students: Number Theory and Non-Euclidean Geometry. These help fulfill the additional 9 hours of graduate mathematics required of the MA degree plan.
What is particularly exciting is that the Number Theory class (to be offered in the Spring of 2015) will also be a required course for our MS students. Thus, the two groups of students will have a common experience.
The development of hybrid courses, however, has lagged. Nearly every MA core course is taught via Interactive TV during the regular academic year. The one hybrid class we offer uses the "flipped classroom" model, which does require online access. There are still occasional face-to-face meetings. A similar structure could be implemented for other MA courses, but faculty members have not had the time to implement them.
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Plan for Continuous Improvement
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We will be adding Non-Euclidean Geometry to our course offerings, probably in the fall of 2015.
We currently have a cohort of six high school mathematics teachers from Aldine ISD who are seeking MEd degrees from Educational Leadership. We worked with the Ed Leadership faculty to develop a set of six mathematics courses the students could take. This was a new (and unanticipated) development that happened during the 2013-2014 school year. If this proves successful, we hope to offer it to another cohort of teachers in another school district.
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