Contextual factors that affect a classroom are many and varied.  The important thing is for classroom teachers, including me, to realize and understand how these contextual factors will affect their classroom, not only for planning purposes, but assessment purposes as well.  I teach MAT 0950 – Prealgebra at Utah Valley University in the Developmental Mathematics Department.  My classroom and students are greatly affected by many contextual factors that must be addressed by me in my creation of learning goals, instructional planning, assessment, and efforts to maintain a learning environment within my classroom.

ENVIRONMENTAL CONTEXTUAL FACTORS

•Community Level

                There are many environmental contextual factors that affect my classroom.  UVU is located in Orem, Utah.  As a university, it is well on its way to surpassing the University of Utah to become the second largest school in the state of Utah.  With the largest university in the state, BYU, being no more than 15 miles away, the entire community is very saturated with university level students.  This creates a very interesting atmosphere within the community of student apartments, businesses geared toward student appeal, and the transient lifestyles of students moving from one location to another regularly.  This contextual factor affects my classroom by the mere fact that my students associate and interact with mostly other students.  Their community consists of mainly university level students.  This means that in my classroom, we must have a positive and non-judgmental environment in which to explore mathematics together and create a problem solving atmosphere.

                Another contextual factor created by the community of UVU is the changing attitude towards UVU.   UVU is a fairly new to the university level.  It was previously a state college, viewed as the “lesser school” compared to nearby BYU.  Now as a university with graduate degrees becoming available, the attitude and perception of UVU is changing drastically to involve more respect from the community.  This affects my classroom as the students enrolled are no longer enrolled in a state college, but in a university and thereby expect the respect, prestige, and educational excellence that comes with the that title.  I must be sure to maintain and provide that level of educational excellence within my own classroom.

•University Level

Contextual factors that arise from the university itself also affect my classroom and my teaching.  UVU is currently embarking on its second academic year as a university.  This change is something that the community has greatly looked forward to and the excitement of being a university still permeates the campus.  With this change of title has come many new programs to help ensure the school’s success at the university level.  This includes programs for tracking students’ success and failures as well as retention.  Within my classroom, I have participated in surveys as well as programs that help teachers to ensure students success by encouraging attendance, group work, and utilizing outside resources.

Another contextual factor created by the university itself is the resources available.  Now that UVU enjoys university status, it receives more funding from the state.  This allows for more resources to be available to me as an instructor and to my students as well.  There is free on-campus tutoring available for math students.  There are also technology programs that are available for me to use within the classroom in order to demonstrate certain concepts, and then for the students to complete assignments on their own time and to use as a study guide.

•Department Level

                Environmental contextual factors are also created by the Developmental Math Department in which I teach.  This department was created apart from the Mathematics Department to address the needs of students who performed on a remedial level in mathematics on their placement tests.  This department consists of classes covering different concepts from fundamental arithmetic, prealgebra, and algebra.  These classes prepare the students for college algebra, which fulfills a GE requirement for the students who do not plan on continuing in mathematics.  Teaching in the Developmental Mathematics Department supplies me with many resources to turn to when teaching lower level mathematics to college students.  Ideas, techniques, and strategies are readily available to me to help improve my students’ understanding.  Implementing these within the classroom is very helpful.  Also, the student’s knowledge that there is an entire department devoted to the lower level math is encouraging to the students, since they know that they are hardly the only ones who need to pass remedial math classes in order to get their degree.

                The Developmental Mathematics Department is also constantly trying to improve its classes and the way that they are taught.  As a member of the department, I am able to implement and analyze the success of different techniques, ideas, and text books used within my classroom.  Tracking the success of our students is a high priority and forces me to watch my students and keep records of their progress or lack of in order to encourage them and to get them the help and resources that they need in order to succeed in this course.

CLASSROOM CONTEXTUAL FACTORS

•Physical Features

                The physical features of my classroom is also a contextual factor that affects my teaching.  My classroom consists of eight long, skinny tables each with four to five chairs all facing toward the front.  This requires movement of tables and chairs in order to participate in group work.  It takes a little time, but the students are more than willing to make the necessary changes at the beginning and end of class.

•Availability of Technology Equipment and Resources

                Technology equipment is readily available in my classroom.  Mine is a “Technology Enhanced Classroom.”  This means that there is a tech podium that has a computer with internet access and a projector and screen available for my use.  This allows me to prepare computer presentations and use online resources and applications and even games that demonstrate the concepts that we are learning in class.

•Extent of Parental Involvement

                At the university level, parental involvement is somewhat minimal.  Being a state school and a class majority of freshmen, there are many of my students who still live at home and not with roommates.  However, at the college level, if parents are involved in their child’s school work, it is generally on a one-on-one basis with their child.  As part of the university students’ FERPA rights, I am not allowed to discuss a student’s grade, even with their parents, without a signed waiver.

•Grade Level

                Another classroom contextual factor is grade level.  The vast majority of my students are true freshmen who have graduated from high school just last year.  This is their first year in college and as their teacher, it is partially my responsibility to introduce them and acclimate them to the university learning environment as well as encourage good study skills and practices.

STUDENT CONTEXTUAL FACTORS

•Special Needs Students

Within my classroom, special needs students play a role in how I develop instruction and assessments.   Students with learning disabilities, one student in particular, impact the design of my lessons and assessments.  For example, some concepts must be covered more slowly so as to ensure understanding by all students and some may find it helpful to have an e-text available.  As the instructor, being patient with questions from students who may have a hard time keeping pace with the rest of the class is also very important, particularly those concepts that may require reading.  Thirdly, some students need to be accommodated when taking assessments (such as extra time and distraction-reduced testing environments) in order to give them a fair chance at staying on pace with the rest of the class.

•Skill Level

When prealgebra is taught at a university level, it is considered remedial or low-level mathematics.  The students who are in my class have taken a placement test that put them at a skill level appropriate for prealgebra.  These are typically students who have struggled in math in their high school career and need to reach college algebra in order to meet the bare minimum requirement for their major, typically college algebra.  With this in mind, my instructional design must be engaging and interesting as well as confidence building in order for these students to overcome the hurdles of their past math classes.  My assessments must also be precise and must cover all of the material and concepts that they will need to know in order to progress in their mathematics at the university level.

•English Language Learners

                There are students in my classroom who speak English as a second language.  One student in particular sometimes needs me to say something more than once in order for him to understand what I am saying.  My instructional design must be able to adapt to repeat concepts or even just some sentences in order to accommodate these students.  The language that I use when teaching concepts must also be mathematically correct and consistent so that they can have a stable understanding of the meaning of the words I am using.  There is also sometimes a cultural difference in the way they have been taught some concepts of mathematics in other countries that are slightly different than what is normally taught here, so an open mind is required to ensure that their method is still correct.  For assessments, directions must be written very clearly in language that everyone in the classroom can understand.

•Learning Styles

Students typically take my class as freshmen.  This means that the students within my classroom have all come from different high schools with different teachers, and have therefore been exposed to very different teaching methods and may have developed differing learning styles.  With this in mind, I must try to incorporate as many teaching techniques as is reasonable in order to reach and accommodate for the many different learning styles that may exist in the classroom.  Assessments must also allow for these learning styles as well, using different testing methods and question types in order for each student to be able to employ the learning style he or she excels at.

CONTEXTUAL FACTORS AND THEIR INFLUENCE ON LEARNING GOALS, INSTRUCTION, AND ASSESSMENT

•Learning Goals

                When establishing learning goals, these contextual factors must be taken into account.  The students’ prior learning and skills greatly influence the creating of learning goals.  Since these students are in a low-level math class, the learning goals must be reasonable and have expectations that the students can meet, given they put in the time and effort required to reach these goals.  Some “big picture” goals involve engaging students in the learning experience through classroom participation, cooperative learning groups, study groups outside of class, and the use of technology in order to further understanding of certain topics.

•Instructional Design

                Instructional design must also be influenced by the students’ prior learning and skills.  When lesson planning and carrying out these designs, I must incorporate these contextual factors into our day to day work.  This includes ensuring that my instruction includes different teaching techniques in order to accommodate for different learning styles.  It also requires some level of engaging activity to encourage the students to participate in the process.  Some instruction will even include some actual dramatized method or concept in order to fully involve all students in the classroom.

•Assessment

                Thirdly, assessments must be planned and designed keeping the students’ prior learning and skills in mind.  Assessments must be designed such that the objective of each question is clear to the students.  Assessments in one form or another must be used to track students’ progress throughout the unit or course in order to fully assess the learning and understanding of each individual student so that the instructional design can be modified slightly as needed in order to keep student understanding at its highest.

                The inclusion of all of these contextual factors into the learning goals, instructional design, and assessment process will help me to ensure that students will be engaged learners and to create an atmosphere in the classroom that enables maximum confidence and learning.