What is it about?
Mathematics support is now offered in many higher-education institutions in Ireland, as an optional, free additional support for students studying any type of mathematics. We examined the attendance records at mathematics support for one Irish university over the past 12 years, and compared these with whether or not students passed their mathematics module. We found that, even when taking into account their previous grades and module studied, the odds of a student passing their module were higher if they used mathematics support, even if they only came one time.
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Why is it important?
This shows, using a large database, over a period of 12 years, that mathematics support increased the odds of students passing their mathematics exam, which underlines the importance of such services and the continued funding of mathematics support. In previous studies, students who only used mathematics support once were grouped together with those who never attended, but here, we have shown for the first time that attending even once has an impact.
Perspectives
Knowing mathematics support works and being able to show how well it works are two very different things. It was very satisfying to be able to produce this paper to confirm what we see happening on a daily basis, and show the value of mathematics support in helping students to progress through their university mathematics modules.
Dr Eabhnat Ní Fhloinn
Dublin City University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: A quantitative, longitudinal analysis of the impact of mathematics support in an Irish university, Teaching Mathematics and its Applications An International Journal of the IMA, May 2018, Oxford University Press (OUP),
DOI: 10.1093/teamat/hry012.
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