On a recent episode of a television game show, a contestant's response to the statement “The high school subject you have had the least use for” was “Algebra.” This lucky contestant had matched the ...number-one response of those surveyed. I, in turn, sank into a depression over yet another assault on mathematics teaching and learning.
This qualitative study was based on inductive analysis of interviews of twelve female students from a community college remedial mathematics program in East Tennessee. Demographic information and ...high school transcripts provided background information on participants. Themes within three categories emerged: (1) Internal beliefs: Gaining confidence in mathematics, the role of time in learning mathematics, difficulties with visual and verbal mathematics; (2) The role of school: Incompatibility of schools' use of time vs. students' needs, the importance of teachers' attitudes and use of time, guidance counselors' lack of time, the pace and compartmentalization of the mathematics curriculum; (3) Social influences: negative influences of peers, positive influences of family members. Two of the themes under internal beliefs differ from previous findings on female learners of mathematics. (1) The participants in this study perceived that their successes in their remedial mathematics courses were due to ability in mathematics and (2) they perceived that earlier, less successful attempts at learning mathematics were the result of a lack of their own effort. An additional theme pervaded this study, that of a lost year. A year of school and/or mathematics was lost in some form by nine of the twelve participants during high school. Three of the participants did not continue in mathematics during their senior year despite above average achievement in previous courses. Four of the participants lost time due to negative peer influences. Two participants were enrolled in "terminal" mathematics programs which discouraged further mathematics study. The participants in this study corroborated current theories which stress the importance female learners place on feeling a personal, emotional connection to those involved in significant domains of their lives. The twelve female learners in this study discussed at length the importance of teachers who cared and offered time and encouragement. A major implication from this study is the importance of caring and nurturing from the school organization, teachers and family members.
