Use of a maths support centre - Perkin, Pell & Croft, 2007

[torquetum]

 Perkin, G., Pell, G. & Croft, T. (2007). The Mathematics Learning Support Centre at Loughborough University: staff and student perceptions of mathematical difficulties. Engineering Education, 2(1), 47-58.

 

Loughborough University has a Mathematics Learning Support Centre where students can go to seek help with their maths problems. The authors report on a survey run across staff and students to look at perceptions of difficulties and reasons for attending the centre. The paper reports on a few questions, with staff and student responses. The one of most interest to me was the one on maths difficulties, specifically basic manipulation. Staff see this as a big issue in student difficulties while students see it as a minor issue.

 

“Regarding basic manipulation, there appears to be a huge chasm between staff and student perceptions. Staff perceive a fundamental weakness, whereas students see a problem with the question being posed, which again indicates that staff need a greater awareness of current school mathematics syllabi and the level at which topics are delivered.” (p. 56)

“An interesting point to emerge is that students do not seem to appreciate that it is often lack of understanding of basic and fundamental mathematics that is at the root of their problems. This has implications for any attempts by staff to encourage students to undertake remedial work since students do not believe that they need to.” (p. 56)

 

This echoes what I see in my classes as well. Students’ algebraic manipulative skills are very weak, yet this is not recognised as the big issue it is by the students. Encouraging students to attend to this weakness falls on deaf ears. In my case, I have run compulsory assessments on factorising and manipulating logs (for example) with accompanying worksheets. I insist on an 80% pass and students can rewrite as many times as necessary. We have sessions in class working on these topics. Even with all of this, the students do not value basic manipulation and spend as little time as possible developing these skills. These problems appear to be global.

 

Do not treat this blog entry as a replacement for reading the paper. This blog post represents the understanding and opinions of Torquetum only and could contain errors, misunderstandings or subjective views.