Impact of Digits on Student's Attitudes Towards Math
Dear
Nichols Middle School Families,
I am
contacting you to inform you of an upcoming research study that may involve
your child.
Melanie
Gates, our Director of Secondary Education for STEM, is pursuing her doctorate
through Northeastern University. For her dissertation research she is
conducting a study about the attitudes and beliefs that students have about
math and our math program, digits. This study will help teachers and
administrators better understand how students feel about our math program.
This
research study will consist of two parts, an online survey and focus groups.
The online survey is anonymous and will be administered to students during one
of their regular math classes. Students will be asked multiple-choice questions
regarding their feelings and attitudes toward math and digits. The survey will
take less than 30 minutes. Students may opt out of the survey at any time.
Students
will be selected to participate in the focus group based upon criteria of grade
and level of responses to survey. Students who participate in the focus groups
will be given a pseudonym in order to keep their responses anonymous. An audio
recording will be taken so that the conversation can then be transcribed.
Students may skip any questions during the focus group and they can stop
participating in the focus group at any time.
Confidentiality
will be maintained through out the study and participation is completely
voluntary. This study has been reviewed and approved by the Superintendent of
Schools and the Institutional Review Board of Northeastern University.
In order
for your child to participate in this study, your consent must be given.
Consent forms will be sent home with your students on Friday, June 6th.
You can also find these forms on the research study’s webpage found off of the
middle school math department website. An electronic form for the student
survey may be submitted via the website. However, a hard copy of the form for
the student focus group must be returned to your child’s homeroom teacher. These
forms should be returned to your child’s homeroom teacher by Wednesday, June 11th.
There
will be an informational session held in the media center at the Nichols Middle
School on June 10th at 4:00 PM for any parents or students who have
questions about this study. Information is also available via the math
department website on the Nichols homepage. You may also contact the principal
investigator, Dr. Sara Ewell (s.ewell@neu.edu or 857-272-8948) or Melanie Gates
(furlong.me@husky.neu.edu or 774-766-6481) with any questions pertaining to
this study.
Please
consider allowing your child to participate in this study. Thank you for your
time and consideration.
