The Reasons and Ways to Implement Service-Learning in a Precalculus Class

Abstract

Service-learning provides a versatile pedagogical platform that can improve the academic performance of participating students and open space for a discussion of issues of social justice within a mathematics classroom. We describe our Precalculus course with a service-learning component, in which university students regularly tutor algebra prerequisites to students in the community. We provide interested readers with an insight into our instructor experience, thus helping them bring service-learning to a traditional mathematics course. We quantify the resulting gains in the content knowledge of student-tutors and a potential shift in their beliefs about mathematical problem solving. Reflective diaries provide a view of students' mathematical and personal growth. We hope that these manifest benefits may encourage mathematics departments to implement service-learning as part of their academic curricula.

Keywords:

• Service-learning
• mathematical gains
• Precalculus
• tutoring
• beliefs

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We would like to thank the Center for Community Engagement at Seattle University: without you this work would not be possible. We would also like to thank Jeffrey Anderson for organizing and running Seattle University Service Learning Research Faculty Fellows program. Finally, we would like to express respect and gratitude to the students of our Precalculus classes with service-learning component. Thank you for the care, time, and dedication you have given to your own students!

Notes

1 Throughout the paper, quotes have not been edited for grammar or wording.

2 Due to smaller class sizes, it was difficult to demonstrate the statistical significance of the difference between diagnostic grades, with the exception of iteration 3.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ekaterina Yurasovskaya

Ekaterina (Katya) Yurasovskaya completed her Ph.D. in Mathematics at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver, Canada, and served as postdoctoral Science Teaching and Learning Fellow with the Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative, also at UBC. She looks at issues of equity and social justice in mathematics education. She is also interested in international perspectives on teaching and learning, effective teaching practices, and braid groups. In her spare time she enjoys reading English and American literature, listening to classical music, and making jam.