CHAMP-Cougars and Houston Area Mathematics Program

C.H.A.M.P.

Cougars and Houston Area Math Program


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Goals of CHAMP

OUTCOME GOALS

We have three main Outcome Goals for the high school students in CHAMP:

Graduate from High School.
Attend College.
Consider Majoring in a STEM field.

EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES

In addition to the three Outcome Goals above, we want the students in CHAMP to develop qualities that will make them more successful in academic pursuits. This includes (1) acquiring Grit, (2) cultivating a Growth Mindset, (3) developing Positive Attitudes Towards Mathematics, and (4) practicing Habits of Mind that aid in critical thinking.

Grit
Grit is defined as "perseverance and passion for long-term goals". Individuals with high levels of grit are able to remain determined and motivated over long periods of time regardless of obstacles, challenges, or adversity. Over the past decade, research by Dr. Angela Duckworth at the University of Pennsylvania has shown that grit is a much better predictor of success than any of the previously used predictors such as intelligence, family income, innate ability, or scores on standardized achievement tests. Duckworth also developed a short questionnaire to measure grit, and in a study involving thousands of juniors in Chicago public schools, it was found that students with high grit scores on this questionnaire were significantly more likely to graduate. In addition, other studies have established positive relationships between grit and educational attainment, GPA, and retention in college. Duckworth has said that it is still uncertain how to build grit in students, but one of the best ideas she has found involves developing a growth mindset; i.e., the belief that the ability to learn is not fixed.

Here are some resources for learning more about grit.
- The Wikipedia Article on Grit
- The Duckworth Lab
- Angela Duckworth's TED Talk describing her research on grit.
- Grit and the Secret of Success, an excellent article at Brain Pickings.
Growth Mindset
Research has shown that a student's mindset dramatically affects learning and can be used to predict academic trajectories. In a series of studies conducted over 20 years, Dr. Carol Dweck at Stanford University divided people into two groups: those having a "fixed mindset", who believe character, intelligence, and creative ability are static qualities that we cannot change in any meaningful way, and those having a "growth mindset", who believe these qualities can be cultivated and expanded through effort and that people can improve and grow through practice and experience. Dweck's studies showed that people with a growth mindset accomplished more, pushed themselves harder when encountering difficulty, and overall were more successful and happier.

Interestingly, Dweck's work also showed that regardless of what the the facts are regarding the malleability of intelligence and ability, students with a growth mindset (i.e., students who believe that these qualities are malleable) actually perform better. A large component of developing a growth mindset involves informing students that they can change -- for example, telling students that their mental capabilities can grow through practice or experience, that mistakes and failure are opportunities for learning, and that their levels of accomplishment are not predetermined. Likewise, it is important to help students develop Self-Efficacy (i.e., a belief in one's own ability to complete tasks and reach goals). It has also been shown that cultivating a growth mindset is one of the best ways to build grit. This is because students with a growth mindset believe that ability to learn is not fixed and can change with effort. Consequently, they are much more likely to perservere when they encounter challenges because they do not view failure as a permanent condition. Studies have supported this, and shown that telling students that they can grow, improve, and change, or convincing students that success is within their capabilities, can have a dramatic affect on their levels of grit, how hard they work, and their overall performance.

Here are some resources for learning more about growth mindset.
- The Wikipedia Article on Mindset
- Media on Dweck's research on Growth Mindset:
- Fixed vs. Growth: The Two Basic Mindsets That Shape Our Lives, an excellent article at Brain Pickings.
Positive Attitudes Towards Mathematics
Many of the high school students in CHAMP have had difficulty with mathematics in the past or suffer from math anxiety. We give the students the opportunity to see aspects of mathematics that they typically do not get to experience in their high school classroom, and we provide a supportive and welcoming environment for exploring these aspects. We want students to see a side of mathematics they have never encountered before, and to re-evaluate their attitudes towards mathematics.
- Here are the Attitudes Towards Mathematics that we want students to develop.
Even if students do not attend college or major in a STEM field, we want them to understand that in our increasingly technical and scientific world, developing basic quantitative literacy will help them in many aspects of their lives and jobs.
Habits of Mind
We want CHAMP students to become better learners and more effective problem solvers. We accomplish this by having the students practice Habits of Mind that are useful in learning and in thinking.
- Here are the Habits of Mind that we want students to develop.
Practicing these Habits of Mind helps students to be more aware of the process of learning and to take a more active role in their educations.

In tutoring students we use best practices, informed by research on education and cognitive science, to make our efforts as effective as possible. The following handout (created by Nicky Case and dedicated to the public domain) is a nice summary of what cognitive science tells us really works when it comes to learning:

How Do We Learn?
Links to References cited in the handout:

OTHER COMPONENTS

In addition to the Outcome Goals and Educational Objectives listed above, there are several other components to CHAMP and additional purposes we hope the program will serve.

Mentoring Students

By having professors, graduate students, and UH undergraduates involved in CHAMP as instructors and facilitators, we provide the high school students a vertically integrated system of mentoring. The high school students interact with successful undergraduates in STEM, who are often just a few years older than they are, as well as with graduate students and professors who can provide more experienced advice, guidance, and instruction.

In addition, we provide a great deal of individual attention to the students. We typically have multiple UH professors, graduate students, and undergraduates at each lesson. In many of our meetings the ratio of high school student to instructors and facilitators is 2:1. We also make efforts to get to know the students personally, and provide a great deal of individual instruction, supervision, and feedback. We view mentoring as a critical aspect of the program, and we encourage the high school students to engage the instructors and facilitators and engage in dialog on all topics.

Serving the Community

Part of the mission of the University of Houston is to "commit to fulfilling regional and state workforce needs while becoming the primary engine of social, economic, and intellectual development" and to "identify and respond to the economic, social, and cultural challenges affecting the quality of life in the city of Houston, the state of Texas, and the world through its education, research, and service". CHAMP seeks to further this mission by partnering with high schools in the area surrounding the University of Houston. By promoting mathematics education, we are responding to one of the most immediate educational needs of our surrounding community.

Involving Underrepresented Groups in Mathematics.

Certain groups are severely underrepresented in mathematics and STEM fields. These include ethnic minorities (e.g., African-Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, certain Asians such as Vietnamese and Filipinos), women, and first-generation college students. We believe these populations provide a valuable untapped resource for mathematics and our nation, and that we would all benefit if more individuals from these groups were to become involved in and contribute to mathematics and mathematically-related fields.