Ciarán Mac an Bhaird

Why do students not avail themselves of mathematics support

The Mathematics Department at the National University of Ireland Maynooth has many supports in place to help students if they experience difficulties. These include small group tutorials, online refresher courses, workshops, and a successful drop-in mathematics support centre. Research has shown that students who take advantage of these services have a greater chance of succeeding in examinations than those who do not, (Mac an Bhaird, Morgan, and O’Shea 2009). However, a small minority of at-risk students do not take advantage of the support available. The aim of our study is to investigate the reasons why some students who are experiencing difficulties do not seek help.

A study of creative reasoning opportunities in assessments in undergraduate calculus courses

ABSTRACT In this article we present the findings of a research study which investigated the opportunities for creative reasoning (CR) made available to first year undergraduate students in assessments. We compared three first year calculus courses across two Irish universities using Lithner’s framework. This framework sets apart imitative reasoning (IR) (analogous to rote learning and mimicry of algorithms) and CR (which includes plausible mathematically-founded arguments). We report on the differences between reasoning opportunities in specialist and non-specialist courses and compare our findings with those of other similar projects. In addition, we will provide a critical reflection on Lithner’s framework as a method for classifying tasks in calculus courses and suggest a modification.

Problematic Topics in First-Year Mathematics: Lecturer and Student Views.

ABSTRACT In this paper we report on the outcomes of two surveys carried out in higher education institutions of Ireland; one of students attending first-year undergraduate non-specialist mathematics modules and another of their lecturers. The surveys aimed to identify the topics that these students found difficult, whether they had most difficulty with the concepts or procedures involved in the topics, and the resources they used to overcome these difficulties. In this paper we focus on the mathematical concepts and procedures that students found most difficult. While there was agreement between students and lecturers on certain problematic topics, this was not uniform across all topics, and students rated their conceptual understanding higher than their ability to do questions, in contrast to lecturers’ opinions.

The effect of a monitoring scheme on tutorial attendance and assignment submission

We report on the implementation of a monitoring scheme by the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the National University of Ireland Maynooth. The scheme was introduced in an attempt to increase the level and quality of students’ engagement with certain aspects of their undergraduate course. It is well documented that students with higher levels of appropriate engagement with mathematics do better, on average, than students with similar mathematical backgrounds who do not engage. In this paper we focus specifically on the monitoring of students’ tutorial attendance and their rates of assignment submission. We present an overview of the tutorial and assignment system, describe the monitoring scheme in detail, and discuss the outcome of the data analysis. In particular we will report on the positive effects that this scheme had on attendance and submission rates.