A Synthesis of Graduate Research Studies on Mathematics Education in the Curriculum and Instruction Program of the School of Educational Studies, Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University

Abstract

The purposes of this research were (1) to analyze characteristics of graduate research studies on mathematics education in the Curriculum and Instruction Program of the School of Educational Studies, Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University; (2) to synthesize the graduate research studies on mathematics education in the Curriculum and Instruction Program; and (3) to study the trend of graduate research studies on mathematics education in the Curriculum and Instruction Program. The research sample consisted of 159 theses and independent studies at the graduate level on mathematics education submitted and accepted in the Curriculum and Instruction Program of the School of Educational Studies, during the 1993 – 2014 academic years.  The employed research instrument was a research characteristics recording form.  Data were analyzed using the frequency, percentage, cross impact analysis, and content analysis. Research findings were as follows:  (1) Regarding characteristics of the research studies as classified by contents/studied issues, it was found that 90 of them were theses, while 69 of them were independent studies.  The largest number of them had the research objective to study and compare, followed by the research objective to compare only; all of them employed the quantitative research methodology; 106 studies formulated hypotheses; 21 studies employed the one group pre-test and post-test research design; 114 studies employed the cluster random sampling method; the majority of them were research studies at the lower secondary level; and 22 studies employed CAI program. Regarding research contents, the most studied topic was that of Fractions, followed by that of Equations.  Regarding dependent variables being studied, the largest number of studies used learning achievement as the only dependent variable, followed by those that used both learning achievement and attitude as the dependent variables. Regarding the instruments to collect data on dependent variables, the majority of studies employed learning achievement tests; used KR-20 formula for reliability assessment. (2) Results of synthesizing the 159 studies with the use of cross impact analysis were as follows: regarding the causal factors involving class level and content, it was found that the majority of studies was conducted with lower secondary level students with 16 of them having the content of Fractions; as for the impact of independent factors and contents, the largest number of studies employed the activity management for the content of Solution of Word Problems, followed by the use of CAI for the contents of Equations, Functions, and Probability. (3) Regarding the future trend of graduate research studies on mathematics education of the School of Educational Studies, it was found that the studies should deal with future contents; the mixed methods of data collection should be employed to collect data occurring during the experiment in order to acquire information on the growth and development of students; as for the dependent variables, the studies should deal with the dependent variables of mathematics process skills or skills of people in the 21^st century and the development processes of various skills of students; as for instructional innovations, there should be studies on mobile social media, and on-line courses; also, there should be studies on teacher’s knowledge based on Bloom’s improved taxonomy to find out the teacher’s knowledge concerning concepts and meta-cognitive process on mathematics contents in order to apply the research findings in designing learning management in accordance with objectives of the curriculum.