Written by Gerry Golding
Hello, I’m Gerry Golding, deputy chair of Developing Statistical Thinking (ME626).
In this blog I would like to tell you about a new and exciting scholarship project that Andrew Potter and I are about to undertake. We are both members of the Discovering Mathematics (MU123) module team; a key level one introductory mathematics module carefully developed to meet the needs of students, who either wish to acquire a good foundation before studying further mathematics, or need to understand the mathematical aspects of their chosen subject areas if they are not following a specific mathematics qualification. It looks at a variety of mathematical topics such as numbers, statistics, graphs, algebra, trigonometry and associated techniques. It also introduces mathematical modelling and some problem-solving strategies. As well as ‘doing the maths’ students learn how to interpret their results in context and to explain their approach and conclusions. We often have parents studying MU123 as a standalone module just to be able to help their kids with their homework.
Andrew and I also have backgrounds in Mathematics Education. Andrew has a PGDE in Secondary Education and an MA in Online and Distance Education. He has taught in secondary schools, further education and higher education, and is interested in the transition between stages of mathematical study, and how mathematics is communicated. I completed my PhD in 2006 at the University of Limerick; I investigated “How adults learn advanced mathematics”. I was particularly interested in how mature students studying in a “service mathematics” environment coped with the demands of a system primarily designed for students who have just completed their schooling at age 18. Service mathematics can be described as the study of mathematics within another discipline, for example Science, Engineering, Computing, Business, etc.
Students’ perceptions of the usefulness of mathematics within their chosen degree pathway has the capacity to greatly influence their decision making and could potentially impact on their pass and progression rates. While looking at motivational factors during my PhD, I encountered varying perceptions of the usefulness of mathematics depending on the degree pathway the mature students were undertaking. Although not a focal part of my research at the time, I became aware that changing negative perceptions towards mathematics in general had a positive impact on their motivation to engage with the subject.
A secondary concern is that of students’ general perception of the relevance of first year/level one study. First year grades do not contribute directly to their degree award, leading to a risk of complacency and a lack of engagement that may come back to bite them later in their studies. We believe that a lack of understanding of the usefulness of the mathematics and the fact that first year study does not contribute to their degree award are intertwined, and any intervention must address both issues.
On MU123, we have approximately 2000 students per presentation, the majority of whom are studying this as a service mathematics module; approximately 60% are on some form of Computing and IT degree, 10% on Business and Economics related degrees and the remaining students vary across other subjects including the Mathematics Education pathway. This gives us a unique opportunity to harvest rich data about our students’ perceptions in relation to both issues. Through an analysis of tutor reflections on the tutor-student discourse at two key stages of their MU123 student journey, we will look to explore tutor’s understanding of their students’ perceptions of the usefulness of their mathematical studies on MU123 with the view to developing some good examples of typical MU123 student personas. Our project will form the first phase of a larger strategy within the School of Mathematics to enhance the provision of level 1 service mathematics.
How will we go about this?
The OU teaching model can be described as independent learning supported by a tutor. The tutors are called associate lecturers. We provide all the learning material both in hard copy and web based (in PDF format) and this material is designed to facilitate independent learning. MU123 has its own website which contains extra resources like screencasts (short videos) and interesting news items. There are interactive practice quizzes which the students can use to test their knowledge as they progress through the units. The tutors offer support in the form of tutorials, one to one email or phone support and give detailed feedback when marking assignments. MU123 students are required to complete four assignments and an end of module assessment. Each of the four assignments covers a number of units and the end of module assessment is based on the whole module.
Tutors on MU123 each have an allocated group of approximately twenty students. As well as providing correspondence tuition (by this we mean teaching in the form of feedback which arises from the marking of their students’ assignments and replying to emails etc.), tutors can monitor their engagement with the module website using an analytics tool which tells them how often their students log onto the MU123 website and attempt practice quizzes etc. Many tutors arrange a phone call with their students at the beginning of the module to get a general impression of each of their students’ educational backgrounds and their likely needs.
As shown in the diagram below, we perceive the tutors (or Associate Lecturers) as playing a key role in our project as they maintain the closest contact with the students. Over a number of cycles, we (as part of the module team) will read, analyse and implement tutor recommendations when required and we will feedback to the School and Faculty details of our interventions and their impact.
Initially, we plan to seek ten tutor volunteers. Each tutor will be asked to keep a professional journal in which they will be invited to reflect on their students’ engagement with MU123 at two key points in the module: after their first assignment, and after their last assignment before the end-of-module assessment. We plan to invite the tutors to a focus group discussion before the start of the module where we will seek their experienced opinions on the best indicators of how a student is performing on the module at these key assessment points. The first and last assignments also contain some reflective questions where students are asked to share with their tutors their perceptions of the usefulness of their studies to date. Tutors will be invited to reflect on how/whether increased awareness of their students’ perceptions facilitated a richer tutor-student dialogue and enabled more tailored student support.
Before they submit their journal, we will ask the tutors to reflect on their students’ overall journey based on what we decide at the focus group meeting before module start and to comment on whether in their opinion, the student has engaged sufficiently (even if they struggled) or displayed signs of complacency (just doing enough to pass). We plan to follow up with individual students who we feel may be able to add further value to our research.
What will we do with the data?
The success of the project will be determined by the quantity and quality of data which emerges from the tutor professional journals. The data will be subjected to a thematic analysis in order to identify and create student personas.
- We hope that our analysis will allow us, through the development of these typical student personas, to gain a better understanding of the diversity of students studying MU123 and their perceptions of the usefulness of their mathematical studies and level 1 study in general.
- We hope that the student personas will help the MU123 module team to inform the development of teaching and support interventions to better improve retention and progression of MU123 and other service mathematics modules.
- We would hope to explore to what extent assessment can be used, in itself, as a learning tool for facilitating richer dialogue between tutor and student.
- Finally, we hope that the impact of this project on students will be a greater awareness of how their studies at level 1 link with their chosen degree pathway and/or future career choices, leading to greater employability.
If you are aware of any other studies that we might draw upon, we would be delighted to hear from you. Please send comments to Gerry.Golding@open.ac.uk
Thanks for reading!
Gerry & Andrew