Ascertaining the Mathematical Needs of Selected Health Technologies As Applied to Technical Colleges
Date of Award
Spring 1979
Document Type
Dissertation - Restricted
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Education
First Advisor
Harris, Douglas
Second Advisor
Redovich, Dennis
Third Advisor
DeRoche, Edward
Abstract
This study was conducted to ascertain what mathematics should be included in the post-secondary curriculum for dental laboratory technology, medical laboratory technology and respiratory therapy. The investigation was conducted to determine: (1) the content of the mathematics courses that were currently being taught to students in these technical programs; (2) the content of mathematics courses for these technical programs as perceived by employers, employees, technical instructors, and licensing bodies; (3) the mathematics skills students possessed when entering one of these technical programs; (4) the appropriateness of the current mathematics course for these technicians at Milwaukee Area Technical College; (S) similarities or differences in the emphasis placed on the mathematics skills by people outside the area of mathematics compared with people from the mathematics department at Milwaukee Area Technical College. A seventy-nine item mathematics skills checklist was developed to survey employers, employees, technical instructors, and licensing bodies for each of the health technologies. The data was rank ordered and a Spearman rank order correlation coefficient was used. It was found that there was a wide range of content being taught to these students. Within a technical area, the respondents agreed as to which skills were considered important. Dental laboratory technicians mathematics needs emerged as distinctly different from the needs of the two other technologies. The entering students scored well on test items in basic arithmetic. The current mathematics course at MATC contained most of the topics considered important by the medical laboratory technology and respiratory therapy respondents. The course, however, contained much more content than was needed by dental laboratory technicians. There were high levels of agreement between the mathematics faculty and other respondents. (rhos of .7021, .7021, and .7315 all significant at the . 001 level) The results of this study will be used by Milwaukee Area Technical College in evaluating the existing curriculum.