| A student cannot be considered to have potential to exit as a graduate if he/she does not complete basic degree requirements, such as the math general education requirement. This study reports results of a comparison made to see: (1) if there is a difference in rates of students' completion of associate degree required math courses using two different math course pedagogies, (2) if associate degree graduates take more or less time, in semesters and/or credits to graduate, as a variable of the type of math pedagogy used to complete math courses, and (3) if there are differences in course/degree completion effectiveness between Caucasian and Native American students. Data used covered a two year period, 3,056 math course enrollments, 471 graduates, and three rural Arizona community colleges. Two colleges taught math courses by lecture. The third used the "multi-course learning lab" pedagogy.;The math lecture pedagogy was found to be nearly twice (1.85 times) as effective for earning math credit than students using the math "multi-course" learning lab pedagogy. Thus lecture students were nearly twice as likely to effectively enter into the graduation pipeline. However, Native Americans were found to do 3.5 times relatively less poorly than Caucasians in math course completion using the "multi-course" lab pedagogy, than lecture students. No major differences were found in the mean length of time and mean credits it took math lecture pedagogy degree completers to graduate (9.2 semesters/84.5 credits) compared to the math "multi-course" lab degree completers (9.8 semesters/86.5 credits). No major degree completion differences due to pedagogy were found between Native Americans and Caucasians except, regardless of pedagogy, Native American graduates performed slightly better in mean time and credits to graduate.;Implications are one school studied may significantly increase the number of graduates by adopting a math lecture pedagogy over the "multi-course" lab pedagogy. However, Native American students may be limited in course completion effectiveness by the use of the math lecture pedagogy over other pedagogies. |
