Selected Effects of a Curriculum Integration Intervention on the Mathematics Performance of Secondary Students Enrolled in an Agricultural Power and Technology Course: An Experimental Study

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to empirically test the posit that students who participated in a contextualized, mathematics-enhanced high school agricultural power and technology (APT) curriculum and aligned instructional approach would develop a deeper and more sustained understanding of selected mathematics concepts than those students who participated in the traditional curriculum and instruction.This study included teachers and students from 38 high schools in Oklahoma (18 experimental classrooms; 20 control classrooms).Students were enrolled in an APT course in the spring of 2004.The experimental design used was a posttest only control group; unit of analysis was the classroom.One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to test the study's null hypotheses.The math-enhanced curriculum and aligned instructional approach did not significantly affect (p > .05) a student's mathematics ability as measured by a traditional test of student math knowledge or by an "authentic" assessment of student ability to use math to solve workplace problems.Thus, the study's null hypotheses were not rejected.However, because of incomplete implementation of the treatment as reported by some experimental teachers coupled with an intervention time frame of only one semester, a one-year replication of the study is recommended.