Is mathematics anxiety a factor?: First-year university students provide answers

Abstract

South Africa finds itself with skills shortages in scientifically oriented professions. A major contributor to this has been students’ failure in mathematics. This study set out to identify students who self-reported mathematics anxiety and determine if this was a factor in their studies. Participants were 204 mathematics first-year students registered for degrees in Engineering, Information Technology, and Natural Science. Included in this group were Foundation Year students. Results indicated that the majority of students admitted to higher levels of anxiety. With respect to the different degree programmes, chemistry students reported higher anxiety. Specifically, a negative association was established between performance and mathematics evaluation anxiety. It is concluded that lecturers through investigations such as this can identify and isolate highly anxious mathematics students. Such students may receive remedial psychological help or at least, lecturers may revise their presentation methods to suit these particular students. The study also concluded that there are underlying problems within the teaching and learning of mathematics among the study sample. As is typical of this type of investigation, a number of questions remain unanswered such as what the sources of students’ mathematics anxiety are and how these relate to the variables investigated here. A follow-up study will focus more closely on these issues.     

The perceptions of first-year undergraduate Malawian students of the essay writing process

Abstract

A good command of written English is essential for tertiary students in Malawi. Notably, their academic success is largely dependent on their mastery of the written language but, in addition, recent years have seen more employers in Malawi emphasising the need for excellent communication skills in both the national language (Chichewa) and English. This article analyses Malawian first-year undergraduate perceptions of the essay writing process. A study in which 200 students from the faculties of Humanities and Social Sciences were surveyed was carried out at the University of Malawi's Chancellor College in 2006. The results indicate that students find it very challenging to obtain sufficient and relevant source text information, paraphrase or summarise information, and use an appropriate academic writing style. It appears that essay writing is challenging for first-year undergraduates — partly due to lack of thorough and timely training in essay writing.     

Health Sciences Library Support of a University Common Reading Program: A Case Study

Common reading programs have become increasingly popular on college and university campuses as a means for increasing student engagement, retention, and success. This article describes the characteristics, goals, and benefits of common reading programs and provides examples from the literature of academic library involvement in them. Finally, an example is provided of how one academic health sciences library participated in its institution’s First-Year Summer Reading program.     

Where freshmen aspirations meet reality: factors influencing the learning outcomes of a living-and-learning program in an Asian university

ABSTRACT

This study explored the impact of a living-and-learning program (LLP) in a residential college of an Asian university on a freshmen cohort. It utilized a theoretical framework based on Astin’s input-intermediate outcome-environment-outcome model. We examined survey data collected at two time points a year apart to understand how the freshmen’s learning outcomes were influenced by their pre-college intentions and beliefs, their involvement and leadership in the LLP, and the LLP’s environment. We found that pre-college perceived self-confidence had no impact on the learning outcomes. However, pre-college perceived competence in personal and intellectual growth was a significant contributing factor for involvement and post-college self-confidence. The freshmen’s involvement in turn positively predicted their personal and intellectual growth and post-college self-confidence. The academic aspects of the LLP’s environment also contributed to this growth. The findings have ramifications for the design of LLPs, in particular, the definition and measurement of learning outcomes, the criteria for admissions, and the facilitation of student involvement.     

Understanding How First-year Seminars Affect Persistence

First-year seminars are nearly ubiquitous fixtures in American higher education, and research has documented their positive effect on student persistence. Only limited research, however, has attempted to isolate the impact of various aspects of first-year seminars on persistence, especially on a cross-institutional basis. We use a survey of almost 20,000 first-year students at 45 four-year institutions combined with institutional-level data to understand how aspects of first-year seminars affect early intentions to persist. Because survey respondents are grouped within dissimilar institutions, we use a multilevel modeling approach to model intent to persist.     

Making the transition to higher education in Hong Kong: a tale of two cohorts

The academic year 2012/13 marked a major milestone in the history of Hong Kong higher education as it witnessed the admission of two markedly different cohorts of Cantonese-speaking freshmen to the city’s English-medium universities: those embarking for the last time upon the traditional 3-year programme modelled on the British system of initial disciplinary specialisation and those commencing the new 4-year programme featuring an American-influenced first year of general education. This article presents the findings of a study which sought to compare the perceptions and experiences of the two cohorts on the challenging process of adjusting to the demands of university study. It was hypothesised that students in the 3-year cohort (3YC) would experience fewer difficulties adjusting to university learning and teaching than the 4-year cohort (4YC) as it was assumed that their A-level programme (years 12–13) placed greater emphasis on university-related skills, practices and habits of mind than the new senior-secondary curriculum (years 10–12). This hypothesis was tested by means of a survey completed by 1480 students at Hong Kong Polytechnic University towards the end of the academic year. The results largely support this hypothesis, although the evidence suggests that both cohorts had adjusted moderately well to university study by the end of the year. The results indicate that the principal difference between the two cohorts and the key to the 3YC’s smoother transition was their greater confidence and competence in English, which presumably stemmed from their extra year at school and the greater depth of the traditional sixth-form curriculum.     

A single-question qualitative bachelor’s programme evaluation

Conventionally, quantitative surveys are used for student evaluations in higher education, but the validity of this practice has been questioned. In the present study, we investigated a qualitative method for evaluating a bachelor’s programme. Forty-one first-year students and twenty-eight third-year students on a bachelor’s programme in Public Administration were asked to answer a single question in relation to their programme: ‘What could have been done in order to support your learning?’ The students provided rich responses of a depth and breadth not attainable through conventional surveys, making this method worthwhile for educational development at the programme level. The responses focused on students’ own learning rather than on judgement of teacher performance. The results indicate that the students underwent a transition from the first to third year, suggesting a shift in needs. For example, first-year students asked for direct interaction, whereas third-year students asked for feedback on accomplishments. Practical applications are discussed.     

An examination of US first-year teachers’ risk for occupational stress: associations with professional preparation and occupational health

Previous research has demonstrated associations between teacher stress and occupational burnout, but few studies have attempted to operationalize a central tenet of most stress theories, namely that teachers’ appraisals of their classroom demands vis-à-vis their classroom resources is a central driver of vulnerability to stress. The research is particularly silent on risk for stress among the most vulnerable workers in the education sector – first-year teachers. The current study, utilizing data from the US National Center for Education Statistics Beginning Teachers Longitudinal study, sought to replicate prior research, conducted with more experienced US teachers, demonstrating that perceptions of classroom demands and resources can be used to classify new teachers according to their risk for stress. In an extension to previous analyses, the current study also examined the association between first-year teachers’ risk for stress and professional preparation. Results from this study aligned with previous findings, teachers classified at risk for stress reported more burnout symptoms (d = 1.48) and less classroom control (d = .62). Teacher education characteristics and exposure to first-year support programming were also found to be associated with first-year teachers’ risk for stress classification. Findings have implications for how US teacher education potentially shapes first-year teachers’ appraisal of their working conditions and corresponding risk for stress.     

Partnerships and parents – relationships in tutorial programmes

The tutorial system is considered to be a useful pedagogical intervention to improve student retention, particularly in the context of a first-year student’s experience of entering university. For these novice students to achieve academic success, it is important that they are given access to the subject-specific knowledge and practices in their different disciplines, that is, that they acquire ‘epistemological access’. A recent study of the tutorial system in a South African university (Layton, D.M. [2013]. A social realist account of the tutorial system at the University of Johannesburg (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Rhodes University, Grahamstown), sought to discover to what extent tutorials were discursively constructed as being about the enablement of epistemological access. This paper focuses on two discourses that emerged from the study – the parent discourse and the partnership discourse. Both discourses were concerned with relationships between key stakeholders in the tutorial programme. Given that tutorials are considered to be spaces in which more intimate learning can take place than in the anonymous environment of the large lecture hall, an interrogation of the relationships fostered in tutorials is important. The parent discourse, in which students were positioned as ‘kids’ needing care, was supportive of new students but ran the risk of being patronising and reductionist. The partnerships discourse, in which tutors and academics were seen to be working together towards the common goal of student success, was seen to be enabling of epistemological access. But it required a commitment to teaching endeavours that was in tension with the institutional focus on research. Through a social realist analysis of the two discourses constructing relationships in the tutorial system, we conclude that these discourses have the power to both constrain and enable the extent to which the tutorial system can be a site of epistemological access.     

Creating first-year assessment support: lecturer perspectives and student access*

While online courses provide opportunities for a range of assessment tools and resources, little is known about how lecturers might best provide assessment cues to support diverse cohorts. This study explored how lecturers communicate messages about assessment expectations to first-year students in two courses at an Australian regional university (Nursing, n = 323; Engineering, n = 153), and how students accessed the assessment resources. A comparative case study methodology was used. Data included interviews with course coordinators to identify the assessment cues provided, course online content related to assessment and data recording student access of assessment resources. Diverse messaging systems were observed and verbal and written cues were abundant and embedded throughout both courses; however, not all students accessed all cues. What remains unclear is how students might bring together these cues in a productive way. Further research must explore the extent to which students can be better supported to improve their learning.