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We analyse the predictive power of learning strategies for engineering students’ performance in mathematics. Learning strategies play an important role in self-regulated learning. Based on a new learning strategy questionnaire that takes into account the specifics of mathematical learning at universities, we investigated what were the strategies that correlate with performance and predict future performance. We present data of a longitudinal study with N = 361 engineering students regressing their performance on students’ use of their learning strategies as well as their prior performance. The results indicate that practicing but not repeating the content and resisting frustration predict students’ performance. We discuss the findings with a specific view on what is tested and why some elaboration strategies might not be rewarded in exams.

Mathematics learning support centres (MLSC) are widely established and evaluated in English-speaking countries (such as the UK, Ireland and Australia). In most of these countries, several national surveys on MLSCs exist. They give an overview of the number of MLSCs as well as their characteristics in these countries. In Germany, there is a lack of studies on MLSCs and the landscape of MLSCs has not been described yet. This article presents basic information concerning counts of MLSCs and their characteristics at universities. Based on a three-step approach of analysing university homepages and additional personal contact via email or phone calls, we gathered typical MLSC features (e.g. staff quantities and qualification, opening and support hours, supported study programmes). We analysed 190 universities from a web-based register on study programmes. In total, we found 61 MLSCs located at 51 German universities. Another 16 support centres were specialized on mathematics didactics, which means they focussed on didactical and methodological support for preservice teacher students and often provided different teaching materials. Thirty-eight centres were located at universities (62.3%) and 23 MLSCs at universities of applied sciences and comparable universities (37.7%). The MLSCs were different in their sizes of staff and opening hours, and both the numbers of staff and the service hours differed greatly. The student groups MLSCs at German universities focus on differ concerning characteristics like study programme or semester. We will provide the main categories describing these groups. We seek to answer research questions concerning the characteristics of MLSCs in Germany and discuss the results compared to international findings. This information is useful for further international collaborative research, for example a standardized international survey. From a national perspective, these findings support networking and collaborations between the MLSCs as well. As some German MLSCs are facing financial cuts, these results might help in gaining additional funding.

The identity or self-concept of computer scientists has received increasing attention in the computing education research (CER) literature in recent years. Identity is often considered relevant both for initially choosing a path of study and subsequent retention. It is therefore also considered highly relevant for the questions of how to reduce drop-out rates and broadening participation of currently underrepresented groups in computing in higher education. However, as more and more students have eligible or mandatory computing education in their K-12 years, identity may become relevant in this area as well. In this article, we analyze the use and development of identity in the CER literature with a focus on K-12 education. To do so, we undertook a systematic literature review that identified appropriate publications through both a traditional database search (ACM DL, IEEE Xplore, SpringerLink, ScienceDirect, DBLP, and Google Scholar) as well as an additional forward and backward snowballing process. In total, 31 papers from the years 1997-2020 were identified that address identity in the K-12 CS context. We summarize key research findings from these articles and develop a category system that demonstrate how and why identity is used in CER in the K-12 context. Our findings suggest that the use of identity in K-12 research needs to be thought of in fundamentally different ways than for higher education. Alongside, we provide evidence that the underlying theory is less fragmented than often claimed and highlight potentials arising from greater networking and discussion of identity research in (K-12) CER.