Performance of students with weak mathematics in first-year mathematics and science

Rylands, Leanne; Coady, Carmel

doi:10.1080/00207390902914130

Cited by 76 publications

(61 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…[1][2][3][4][5] This phenomenon in which students are under prepared for the mathematical demands of their undergraduate courses is regularly referred to as the 'Maths Problem'. [6] The declining standards of beginning undergraduates' basic mathematical skills coupled with the recent findings that over four-fifths of school leavers in Ireland reported significant differences in approaches to teaching and learning between secondary level and further/higher education, highlight the challenges encountered by students when commencing their tertiary studies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trends in basic mathematical competencies of beginning undergraduates in Ireland, 2003–2013

Treacy

Faulkner²

2015

International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and

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Deficiencies in beginning undergraduate students' basic mathematical skills has been an issue of concern in higher education, particularly in the past 15 years. This issue has been tracked and analysed in a number of universities in Ireland and internationally through student scores recorded in mathematics diagnostic tests. Students beginning their science-based and technology-based undergraduate courses in the University of Limerick have had their basic mathematics skills tested without any prior warning through a 40 question diagnostic test during their initial service mathematics lecture since 1998. Data gathered through this diagnostic test have been recorded in a database kept at the university and explored to track trends in mathematical competency of these beginning undergraduates. This paper details findings surrounding an analysis of the database between 2003 and 2013, outlining changes in mathematical competencies of these beginning undergraduates in an attempt to determine reasons for such changes. The analysis found that the proportion of students tested through this diagnostic test that are predicted to be at risk of failing their service mathematics end-of-semester examinations has increased significantly between 2003 and 2013. Furthermore, when students' performance in secondary level mathematics was controlled, it was determined that the performance of beginning undergraduates in 2013 was statistically significantly below that of the performance of the beginning undergraduates recorded 10 years previously.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trends in basic mathematical competencies of beginning undergraduates in Ireland, 2003–2013

Treacy

Faulkner²

2015

International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and

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“…The students enrolled for these courses do not necessarily have a strong mathematical background. The unsatisfactory performance of students (particularly in developing countries) in mathematics at school is well documented and confirmed by international tests of educational achievement, such as TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) (Juan & Visser, 2017;Spaull, 2013), and similar trends are experienced at tertiary level (Rylands & Coady, 2009). Juan and Visser (2017) collected data from almost twelve thousand Grade 9 South African students from different socio-economic environments and confirmed the influence of socio-economic factors on science achievement.…”

Section: Context and Purposementioning

confidence: 86%

“…Statistics students (more so in developing countries) generally display lower attitudinal scores towards the subject, lack fundamental mathematical knowledge and perform unsatisfactorily in statistics courses (Coetzee & van der Merwe, 2010;Juan & Visser, 2017;Rylands & Coady, 2009;Spaull, 2013;Van Appel & Durandt, 2017). Students learn statistics through active involvement and participation in the learning activities and by fostering, a more positive disposition towards the subject and former studies almost pleaded for innovative teaching and learning strategies (Garfield & Ben-Zvi, 2007;Jose, 2017).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Dissimilarities in Attitudes between Students in Service and Mainstream Courses towards Statistics: An Analysis Conducted in a Developing Country

Appel

Durandt

2018

EURASIA J MATH SCI T

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In this study, we firstly investigate the attitudinal differences towards statistics between students (from a developing country) in service module and mainstream courses; and, secondly, differences in their attitudes over time, at the beginning and at the end of these courses. Knowledge regarding descriptive and inferential statistics are required for students at tertiary level in many disciplines, and the literature confirms (especially in developing countries) the under-preparedness (at all year levels), inadequate performance and low motivation of students in such courses. An international acknowledged instrument (SATS-36) revealed students' (from different faculties) initial attitudes towards statistics on six components (affect, cognitive competence, value, difficulty, interest and effort) and statistical significant differences between pre-and post-test data. The main implication from these findings are that students (in all faculties) tend to decrease in attitudinal scores over time, and educators can take awareness of this when designing pedagogy in statistics modules.

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“…This phenomenon in which students are under-prepared for the mathematical demands of their undergraduate course, dates back many decades and has been reported in countries such as Ireland (Cleary, 2007;Faulkner et al, 2010), the U.K. (Edwards, 1995;Lawson, 2003), and more recently Portugal (Carr et al, 2015). The 'Maths Problem' is characterised by beginning undergraduates displaying a lack of basic mathematical skills, as well as fragmented understanding, inadequate concept knowledge, and an inability to successfully solve mathematical problems (Rylands & Coady, 2009;Gill, O'Donoghue, Faulkner, Hannigan, 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mind the gap: an initial analysis of the transition of a second level curriculum reform to higher education

Prendergast

Faulkner²,

Breen³

et al. 2017

Teaching Mathematics Applications

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This paper details an initial analysis of the transition of a second level curriculum reform to higher education in Ireland. The reform entitled 'Project Maths' involved changes to what second level students learn in mathematics, how they learn it and how they are assessed. Changes were rolled out nationally on a phased basis in September 2010. Students who were taught and assessed through the new curriculum first entered third level education in September 2012. It is important that third level mathematics lecturers are aware of the changes to the curriculum since certain topics such as vectors and matrices are no longer taught at second level. Hence third level courses may need to be adapted accordingly. This study investigates mathematics lecturers' awareness of Project Maths and whether they have made any adaptions to their course content, teaching and assessment approaches as a result of the new curriculum being introduced. The findings, from a return rate of 23% of eligible respondents, show that although many lecturers are mindful of the concept of Project Maths, they are not aware of the changes in full and how it affects their own course content, teaching and assessment strategies. Accordingly, the gap between second and third level education remains. This study highlights that more needs to be done to ensure there is coherent and uniform approaches to the teaching, learning and assessment of mathematics in the transition from second to third level education.

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Performance of students with weak mathematics in first-year mathematics and science

Cited by 76 publications

References 4 publications

Trends in basic mathematical competencies of beginning undergraduates in Ireland, 2003–2013

Trends in basic mathematical competencies of beginning undergraduates in Ireland, 2003–2013

Dissimilarities in Attitudes between Students in Service and Mainstream Courses towards Statistics: An Analysis Conducted in a Developing Country

Mind the gap: an initial analysis of the transition of a second level curriculum reform to higher education

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