Math professor helps students conquer “Mathphobia”
There are very few people that wake up in the morning excited to solve equations or graph points on a coordinate plane. You almost certainly wouldn’t count most math students in that group; that is, unless, you meet San Jacinto College math professor Kristen Foxley’s students.
One of the biggest academic roadblocks for many students is math. “Mathphobia” often gets the best of even the brightest students, causing some of them to drop out all together. As part of a team of college preparatory and academic faculty, Foxley helped create San Jacinto College’s AIM (Acceleration in Mathematics) program, a co-requisite remediation program that allows students to complete two developmental math courses and College Algebra in a single semester. This award-winning program consistently has a success rate of 64 percent, surpassing traditional College Algebra classes by about 20 percent.
Math professor and lead faculty, Kristen Foxley, was part of a team that developed the award-winning AIM program at San Jacinto College.
Photo credit: Andrea Vasquez, San Jacinto College marketing, public relations, and government affairs department.
Math isn’t usually the first career choice most students aspire to, but being one of the most versatile areas in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math), female students are starting to see the opportunities a math degree affords them. “Although many students struggle with their math efficacy, my female students are considerably more willing to express their fears, challenges, and insecurities in math,” said Foxley. “As they begin to experience success in math, major transformations start taking place.”
In order to combat the STEM stigma, Foxley adds that the earlier students are exposed to STEM careers, especially female students, the more apt they’ll be to stick with the STEM educational areas that interest them. “I think many girls are not aware of the variety of options that are available in the STEM fields. It’s important to start introducing girls to the breadth of STEM careers early, specifically ones that may not be as commonplace. Strong role models and hearing relatable success stories in math and science classes are often what draw young women into STEM careers. For many students, that one positive, and often unexpected, experience is enough to change the trajectory of their life.”
Foxley’s students definitely see her as one of these role models. They describe her as being extremely engaging, even allowing them to text her with any math questions they have. She has also created more than 300 instructional videos for her students to access anytime online and helped create custom workbooks with the AIM instructor team that eliminated costly textbook and online access codes.
Recently, the American Association for Community Colleges (AACC) named Foxley as a finalist for its 2015 Awards of Excellence Faculty Innovation Award. She has also served as a representative on the State Developmental Education Advisory Committee, and last year along with the rest of the AIM team, received the Innovation of the Year Award from the League for Innovation. Foxley, like so many other STEM professors, is helping to make STEM careers tangible and accessible to her students through math, showing them that any obstacle is nothing compared to the determination to succeed.
– Andrea Vasquez