Background: Students often harbour negative attitudes towards research methods and statistics courses, and such attitudes may be associated with harmful cognitive and behavioural responses. Research on these effects has been restricted to the investigation of direct links between attitudes towards statistics, statistics anxiety, academic…

This study provides an overview of the support provided for academic numeracy for first-year students across six Australian regional universities. Survey analysis of university academics provided an overview of the approaches used in academic numeracy in diverse cohorts. Further investigations via semi-structured interviews and secondary data were…

In Australian universities, mathematics is often an essential core subject for disciplines such as engineering, information technology and science. These first-year mathematics subjects may have large enrolments of which a significant number fail the subject and repeat. While interventions to retain students are common, those who have failed…

This study focuses on students in first year environmental science degree programs, where traditionally mathematical emphasis has been much less than within the strict science or math majors. The importance now placed on applied mathematics, however, means that students need to gain more conceptual and quantitative knowledge of mathematics in not…

This article reports on initial findings, including the mathematics components, of a multi-institutional Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) project, "It's part of my life: Engaging university and community to enhance science and mathematics education." This project is focussed on improving the scientific and…

We tested a model of the relationship between attitudes toward statistics and achievement based on Eccles' Expectancy Value Model (1983). Participants (n = 149; 83% female) were second-year Australian university students in a psychology statistics course (mean age = 23.36 years, SD = 7.94 years). We obtained demographic details, past performance,…

In this study we investigate the conceptions of mathematics bridging courses held by students enrolled in these courses at a major Australian university. We report on the participants' responses to email-interview questions about the mathematics bridging courses to describe a two-dimensional outcome space of variations in awareness about the…

This document presents the proceedings of the 31st Annual Conference of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia (MERGA). The theme of this conference is "Navigating Currents and Charting Directions." The theme reminds us that, although we are constantly pushed to account for the quality and impact of our research, we…

The first volume of the 29th annual conference of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education contains plenary lecture and research forum papers as listed below. Short oral communications papers, poster presentations, brief summaries of discussion groups, and working sessions are also included in the volume. The plenary…

This is a record of the proceedings of the 30th annual conference of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia (MERGA). The theme of the conference is "Mathematics: Essential research, essential practice." The theme draws attention to the importance of developing and maintaining links between research and practice and…