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A carefully constructed method of assessment using short, formative, invigilated in-tutorial quizzes is investigated to see how successful this method is compared to previous assessment tasks. We look at whether student engagement increased, given that students who enter university often face issues with the transition from school, and engagement is a factor affecting their success. First-year mathematics courses see a wide variety of students from various mathematical backgrounds who may not know or have little experience with, how to approach their tertiary study. This paper presents a way of using assessment to engage and motivate students who are studying first-year mathematics at university. Assessment is an essential feature of student learning and it is important to use it effectively to benefit the education and learning practices of students. Our study focuses on a particular method of assessment which we found to be successful. We will introduce this method and analyse its effectiveness using both quantitative and qualitative data obtained from a cohort of students enrolled in a large first-year mathematics unit in an Australian university. Furthermore, we give the academic a list of guidelines should they wish to adapt this assessment into their own teaching practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores analysis of feedback data collected from student consultations at two mathematics support centres at universities in Australia and Ireland. Unstructured text data was collected over six years and includes qualitative data on student queries collected during the consultations from mathematics and statistics related subjects. Topic modelling and clustering algorithms are used to uncover key themes in the data across stages. Common areas of difficulty experienced by undergraduate students at both universities are investigated and a comparison between them is shown. The results suggest that, despite institutional differences, there is considerable overlap in the types of mathematical and statistical difficulties experienced by students in their first and second year of university at these institutions. We discuss how the ability to uncover such common mathematical and statistical themes with the aid of text mining techniques can be used to improve the support provided by mathematics support centres in terms of providing an efficient and effective service. The code for analyses at both institutions is provided in a GitHub repository so other academic support centres may use it. Outcomes of this analysis have implications for mainstream mathematics and statistics instructors who wish to gain further insights into their students' learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Closed captioning of instructional videos is a topic that has not seen much discussion despite its importance for hearing-impaired students and recent legal ramifications if videos are not appropriately captioned. In particular, it is unclear what best practice in captioning videos should be to benefit all learners in disciplines such as mathematics with a reliance on the development of visual explanation while providing audio narration. In this paper, we report on a study undertaken at an Australian university, to investigate the perceived level of usefulness of captions and their automatic translations in a mathematics course. We discovered that students broadly agreed that captions are a useful learning feature: to allow flexibility of where and when a video is watched, but also to help understand speaker accents, and clarify explanations that are difficult to hear in the recording. Due to the high levels of use and perceived educational benefits of closed captions in online video but limited literature, there is a significant need for new research in this area. An urgent discussion is needed to explore how students engage with closed captions, how they may support learning, and to investigate implications on instructional design of mathematical videos. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the invasion and occupation of their land by Europeans, Indigenous Australians were expected to benefit from a Western education system based on that of the dominant Europeans. Gradually educators realized that Aboriginal children learn differently and that Indigenous culture and pedagogy has validity and strength. Of course, educators also need to be acutely aware of the diversity of Indigenous cultures in Australia and that there is not a monolithic sense of Aboriginal identity or Aboriginal pedagogy. Dispossession and alienation, poor health and few employment opportunities must also affect educational interest, attendance, application and performance. In this paper the characteristics of Indigenous learners are examined and pedagogical strategies to assist in both students' learning and teachers' delivery are explored. The message conveyed in this paper has particular relevance for teaching mathematics to Aboriginal learners. It is also of considerable value in teaching mathematics to nonAboriginal students, in Australia and elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graduates with well-developed capabilities in finance are invaluable to our society and in increasing demand. Universities face the challenge of designing finance programmes to develop these capabilities and the essential knowledge that underpins them. Our research responds to this challenge by identifying threshold concepts that are central to the mastery of finance and by exploring their potential for informing curriculum design and pedagogical practices to improve student outcomes. In this paper, we report the results of an online survey of finance academics at multiple institutions in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and the United Kingdom. The outcomes of our research are recommendations for threshold concepts in finance endorsed by quantitative evidence, as well as a model of the finance curriculum incorporating finance, modelling and statistics threshold concepts. In addition, we draw conclusions about the application of threshold concept theory supported by both quantitative and qualitative evidence. Our methodology and findings have general relevance to the application of threshold concept theory as a means to investigate and inform curriculum design and delivery in higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

There is general agreement in Australia and beyond that quantitative skills (QS) in science, the ability to use mathematics and statistics in context, are important for science. QS in the life sciences are becoming ever more important as these sciences become more quantitative. Consequently, undergraduates studying the life sciences require better QS than at any time in the past. Ways in which mathematics and science academics are working together to build the QS of their undergraduate science students, together with the mathematics and statistics needed or desired in a science degree, are reported on in this paper. The emphasis is on the life sciences. Forty-eight academics from eleven Australian and two USA universities were interviewed about QS in science. Information is presented on: what QS academics want in their undergraduate science students; who is teaching QS; how mathematics and science departments work together to build QS in science and implications for building the QS of science students. This information leads to suggestions for improvement in QS within a science curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Development of mathematical problem solving skills is an age old problem in mathematics. This paper details the design of a component of a first year university mathematics course in which group work and mathematical communication skills, especially writing skills, are used as a tool to develop non-routine problem solving skills. In this design Polya's problem solving framework and a writing heuristic are used synergistically with group work to develop the mathematical skills and enhance the mathematical communication skills of novice students. Students' perceptions and performance indicate that this strategy has been a success and has facilitated the development of some metacognitive behaviours in the students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports an inquiry into assessment items classed as 'extended pieces of work' in Applicable Mathematics, in Western Australia. The principal purpose was to identify opportunities for graphics calculator use in 'extended pieces' implemented in schools. Ownership of the technology is widespread because it is mandated for the Applicable Mathematics tertiary entrance examination, which students sit at the end of the Year 12 course. Twenty-one of the twenty-eight pieces that were collected allowed for calculator use and, frequently, choosing to use the technology would have advantaged students, for instance, in supporting conjecture. Practical applications that would not be feasible to solve without the technology were included. Regression analysis and the random number generator were utilized. Overall, availability of the technology has widened the scope of approaches in 'extended pieces of work' in potentially valuable ways. Issues are how conjectures were elicited and calls for 'black box' use of the calculator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The decline in enrolments and interest in advanced mathematics studies is of growing concern internationally. Previous research suggests that a range of factors can influence students' academic decisions. The focus of the paper is on one of these potential sources of influence students' perceptions of the tertiary mathematics learning environment. Data from two large-scale surveys (N = 1883) and from a smaller number of interviews (N = 71) with students enrolled in tertiary mathematics courses at five Australian universities are presented and discussed. Collectively, the survey results and the interview data reveal considerable variations in the quality of the teaching and student support available in different mathematics departments. Students' comments were constructive and offered valuable ideas for improving the existing situation, retaining current students and attracting others to mathematics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]