Ronald W. Eick, Jr.Graduate School of Education, Touro University – California

Can blogs improve students’ ability to reason mathematically?

The most recent report of SAT scores shows that while math scores have remained relatively the same or even increased over the past 30 years, reading and writing skills continue to decline. Scores have dropped nearly 30 points since data tracking started in 1972. (College Board, 2012) However, results from the California Star Test show that while increases in reading and writing are being made for students who scored proficient or above in mathematics, scores have dropped anywhere from 10-20 percent in reading and writing for students who have scored below basic or far below basic in mathematics. (California Department of Education, 2012). Clearly, there is a distinct relationship between math performance and writing skills. Since reading and writing scores continue to decline, this begs the question: How can educators improve these scores? In particular, how can math teachers work towards improving reading and writing in their classrooms in order to promote higher math performance?

The Common Core standards being implemented in the 2013-2014 school year have been created as a way to meet that challenge. These standards will shift the focus from procedural math to understanding and synthesis. The idea is that the same eight core standards will be implemented across all grades K-12. These eight standards are as follows:

•Standard 1: Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them•Standard 2: Reason abstractly and quantitatively•Standard 3: Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others•Standard 4: Model with mathematics•Standard 5: Use appropriate tools strategically•Standard 6: Attend to precision•Standard 7: Look for and make use of structure•Standard 8: Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning

(Common Core, 2012)

To meet these standards, math teachers must shift their pedagogical practice now to include more discussion, reading, and writing. Through the writing process, educators can help students reflect and think more clearly about their reasoning. Using blogs in the math classroom is one way to accomplish this task, while using technology that is available in 21st century. Among the many ways that blogs can be useful in math are:

•Students have a written record of their thoughts about math.•Students can see improvement over time.•Students can share their thoughts with others.•Students can improve their reading and writing skills.•Students can be creative and use technology in a fun way.•Students can learn from others’ mistakes.

Since blogs appear to be so useful, a research study was conducted to see how much they can affect student learning. Will the use of blogs in the math classroom improve procedural math or simply math reasoning? Are there other implications to the use of blogs? It was predicted that a mathematics classroom that uses blogs to encourage discussion and deeper thinking will have a 5-10 % increase in test scores, and will be able to perform better on word problems as measured on the results of a weekly word problem test.

IntroductionIntroduction

A mixed method design was chosen for this study due to the combination of qualitative and quantitative data being analyzed. The quantitative data is simply test scores on weekly math assessments. The qualitative data is the additional or unexpected benefits for students who blog about their thinking.

The research study took place during 30 instructional days. A convenience sample of approximately 70 students was drawn from the researchers teaching load. The sample consisted of students of different age (14-18), race, sex, socio-economic background, and math ability. All students were in traditional college preparatory classes, i.e. not advanced placement. The sample was further divided into two classes of high school level Algebra 2. One class used blogging throughout the entire study and one class did not; thus serving as a control group. The pedagogy did not differ among the classes. The control group was given the same writing prompts as the blogging group, but they wrote their responses in a traditional journal . The same content, teaching methods, and classroom space was used for the entire study.

Each week an assessment consisting of 8 skill-related math problems and 2 word problems were given to the students. The procedural math problems were scored by the total percent correct out of 100. The word problems were scored according to a rubric on a 1-4 scale.

MethodologyMethodology

ResultsResults

Figure 1. Experimental Group Vs. Control Group Procedural Test Scores

Figure 2. Experimental Group Vs. Control Group Word Problem Scores

College Board. (2012). 2012 SAT State Profile Report: California. New York, NY: The College Board.

Common Core. (2012). Standards for Mathematical Practice. Retrieved Feb 22, 2013, from Common Core State Standards Initiative: http://www.corestandards.org/Math/Practice.

Kitsis, S. (2008). The Facebook Generation: Homework as Social Networking. The English Journal, Vol. 98, No. 2, 30-36.

Pyon, S. (2008). Why Math Blogs? Teaching Children Mathematics, Vol. 14, No. 6, 331-335.

Literature CitedLiterature Cited

This study set out to explore the use of blogs in the mathematics classroom. It was predicted that a mathematics classroom that uses blogs to encourage discussion and deeper thinking would have a 5-10 % increase in test scores, and would be able to perform better on word problems as measured on the results of a weekly word problem test. Some of the existing literature regarding blogs raved about the benefits. Kitsis (2008) found that through blogs, her students could offer feedback to their peers while still practicing their critical thinking and writing skills. She found that her students put in more effort when they were depending upon each other for help. Pyon (2008) is another educator who uses blogs in her third grade classroom to facilitate math reasoning and improve metacognitive skills. Through blogs, she found that her students displayed evidence of using every one of Bloom’s higher-order thinking strategies.

This particular study found that blogs do have a positive effect on both procedural math and reasoning math. It was surprising to the researcher that the results showed a greater increase in procedural math than reasoning. The experimental group, which blogged each day, showed an increase of 56 % in test scores from the start of the study while reasoning was shown to increase on average from 2 out of 4 to 3 out of 4. The control group, which did not blog, also showed an increase in procedural math but at a much lower level (20 %). Their reasoning scores increased by the same amount.

ConclusionsConclusions

Yet, there are also some additional benefits for students who blog. Many students reported through an informal survey hat they already have a personal blog or that they have blogged in other classes. Therefore, it was easy for them to assimilate blogging in the math classroom. The students reported that they appreciated the fact that they were able to learn math in a less traditional way as opposed to the dreaded drill-and-kill type of approach. They also liked the fact that they were able to share with each other and collaborate as they would do on a social networking website or application. It’s important to remember that these students are digital natives who expect technology in the classroom. They have been exposed to computers since birth, and they expect it in the classroom.

The control group, on the other hand, reported that they had wished they could have submitted their writing digitally. Some students mentioned that they lost their journals or could not find a pencil. Many students felt that writing by hand takes more time and effort than submitting prompts digitally. When asked how they would feel about using blogs in the math classroom, many of them stated that it would be preferable to a paper journal.

The researcher suggests that a new study be done of a longer duration, possibly an entire semester, with a larger sample size. The emphasis of any future studies should focus more on reasoning and less on procedural type of math. This could mean that the students blog only about their reasoning and nothing else. Their reasoning could be evaluated by a clear rubric or other type assessment that is common to every math classroom. Perhaps this rubric could be the same rubric used with the new standardized tests being implemented with the Common Core standards. As of the writing of this paper, the new test has not yet been released.

The researcher based this study on needs within his own classroom, while considering the needs of the field of education at large. There is a need for deeper learning in the mathematics classroom. The push towards inquiry, discussion, and reasoning presented via the new Common Core Standards will make this type of learning the norm. As the math classroom continues to evolve, there will be a great need for this type of research. Educators will need to use the tools that provide the greatest benefit. Blogs could be one of those tools. It is the researchers hope that his colleagues within his own school site and beyond will also see the benefits and might experiment with blogs in some way.

ConclusionsConclusionsResultsResults

Figure 4. Chart showing the general trend lines of students who blog vs. students who do not blog.

Control (No blogs)

Bloggers

Time (weeks)

Test

Scores

Students who blogged had higher test scores

Table 1. Linear Regression Summary

Experimental Group Control Group

Procedural Math

Reasoning Math

507.

257.

4.7442

r

R

xy

756.

571.

2.22.2

r

R

xy

7905.

625.

75.125.2

r

R

xy

693.

482.

686.52834.72

r

R

xy