| This study was designed to determine if mathematics achievement and attitudes of college students would be improved by experiencing a college-level mathematics course requiring students to revisit foundations of mathematics first using concrete manipulative materials, then employing reflections and pictorial representations of mathematics ideas, and finally making a secure connection from materials and pictures to abstract mathematical symbols. Additionally, the interaction of the demographic variables of gender and students' classification with the treatment were investigated.;The sample for this study (;The hypotheses were tested by a three-way analysis of variance. The subscales of Confidence in Learning Mathematics and Mathematics Anxiety of the Fennema-Sherman Attitudes Scales and Mathematics Achievement Scores on a course test revealed no significant differences between experimental and control group scores.;Additionally, a t test was run on the pretest and posttest data to determine if taking the developmental mathematics course makes a difference in the students' mathematics achievement, and attitudes toward mathematics. The t-test analysis on the pretest and posttest data revealed a significant difference in the students' mathematics achievement scores, mathematics anxiety levels, and confidence in learning mathematics. Developmental courses, then, do make a positive contribution to the students' cognitive knowledge of mathematics as well as their more positive attitudes towards mathematics. How to maximize these effects is still open to questions. |
