Mathematics identity and sense of belonging of developmental mathematics students

One of the significant challenges facing higher education is narrowing the educational attainment gap between students who are academically prepared and those who are not. Although the intention of developmental education is to help support underprepared students in achieving academic success, there have been disagreements among researchers on the effectiveness of achieving this goal (Goudas & Boylan, 2012). On one hand, developmental mathematics has the capability of providing the impetus that can propel students to their overall academic success. On the other hand, the long road the students have to go through in completing mathematics requirements causes many to give up before they can finish the sequence of courses (Rosin, 2012). This study examines how developmental students’ general and mathematical experiences help to shape mathematical identities they develop and how these identities in turn hinder or enhance their successful participation in mathematics. Also examined are the factors that influence students’ mathematics identities after taking a developmental mathematics course. To this end, the following research questions guided this study of first year students taking a developmental mathematics course at a mid-sized, urban public university: