Mathematics Resource Centers Collaborative Workshops

Oklahoma State University, Stillwater OK

Investigators

Abstract

As a means to provide centralized services for students in undergraduate mathematics courses, many institutions of higher education house units sometimes known as "mathematics support centers". Examples of the valuable services provided by such centers include tutoring, advising, and peer mentoring. To provide a forum for directors of such centers to share best practices and ideas for maximally effective impact, this project will host two annual working meetings for 20-30 directors of such centers and facilitate continued discussions during the year in between the meetings. Participants in the meetings will identify challenges faced by the centers and solutions implemented successfully. This project will provide the foundation for these professionals to engage in a continuous improvement model, learning from the structures and services determined through practice and assessment to be highly effective. The working meetings will adapt a workshop model used successfully by the American Institute of Mathematics (AIM), adopting the AIM goal of "organize groups of people to set in motion activity that will lead to large-scale advances in the subject". The overall goal of this project's working meetings is to lay the foundation for collaborations between directors of mathematics support centers and researchers in mathematics education. To this end, the workshops will result in an annotated list of priority topic areas and a possible education research agenda.