Conceptions of mathematics and how it is learned: The perspectives of students entering university

This paper reports results from an investigation to identify the conceptions of mathematics held by beginning university students and their approaches to the study of mathematics. Phenomenographic techniques were used to analyze responses to a questionnaire administered to approximately 300 students. An analysis of the results identified a structural relationship between students' conceptions of mathematics and their approaches to learning it, with the majority of students viewing mathematics as a necessary set of rules and procedures to be learned by rote. The results of this research have implications for the ways in which teaching and learning are constituted within universities.