Students approach learning in different ways, depending on the experienced learning situation. A deep approach is geared toward long-term retention and conceptual change while a surface approach focuses on quickly acquiring knowledge for immediate use. These approaches ultimately affect the students' academic outcomes. This study takes a…

Community colleges are facing increased pressure to accelerate students through their developmental mathematics sequence. However, many individuals feel that some state legislatures and college leaders are frequently bypassing developmental math faculty expertise when implementing acceleration and compression initiatives. This qualitative study…

This paper describes the development of a Peer-Led Guided Inquiry (PLGI) program for teaching calculus at the University of South Florida. This approach uses the POGIL (Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning) teaching strategy and the small group learning model PLTL (Peer-Led Team Learning). The developed materials used a learning cycle based on…

Since its establishment in 1996, the North Carolina Early Mathematics Placement Testing (NC EMPT) Program has provided a low stakes reality check of readiness for college-level mathematics to more than 600,000 high school students statewide. The program strives to help reduce the percentage of incoming college freshmen requiring mathematics…

It is well documented in both the British press and mathematics education literature that many consider A-levels (qualifications for secondary school leavers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland) to be insufficient preparation for undergraduate mathematics study in the UK. A-level Mathematics and Further Mathematics are not solely intended for…

In this article, the author utilizes the culturally congruent work of Gay (2010) and Ladson-Billings (2009) to highlight culturally responsive teaching as a viable option for African American students in higher education mathematics spaces. He offers translations of Gay and Ladson-Billings' work to Africana mathematics and argues that these…

This article adopts the following classification for a Euclidean planar [triangle]ABC, purely based on angles alone. A Euclidean planar triangle is said to be acute angled if all the three angles of the Euclidean planar [triangle]ABC are acute angles. It is said to be right angled at a specific vertex, say B, if the angle ?ABC is a right angle…

This article describes an assessment activity that can show students how much they intuitively understand about statistics, but also alert them to common misunderstandings. How the activity can be used formatively to help improve students' conceptual understanding of analysis of variance is discussed. (Contains 1 figure and 1 table.)

We give elementary proofs of formulas for the area and perimeter of a planar convex body surrounded by a band of uniform thickness. The primary tool is a integral formula for the perimeter of a convex body which describes the perimeter in terms of the projections of the body onto lines in the plane.

In this article we consider the random breakage of a rod into "L" unit elements and present a Markov chain based method that tracks intermediate breakage configurations. The probability of the time to final breakage for L = 3, 4, 5 is obtained and the method is shown to extend in principle, beyond L = 5.

Many technologies have changed the way individuals live and learn. Google Inc. has played significant roles in business and academic worlds. Google Apps for Education and Google Classroom have been offered to higher institutions around the globe. Although large cloud service provider such as Google do not encrypt all their stored electronic data…

This paper reports a classroom-based study involving investigation activities in a university numerical analysis course. The study aims to analyse students' mathematical processes and to understand how these activities provide opportunities for problem posing. The investigations were intended to stimulate students in asking questions, to trigger…

This article examines pedagogical changes to a mathematics education course for pre-service teachers (PSTs) over a three-year period. Transactional Distance Theory (TDT) is used as a conceptual framework underpinning the course redesign. A case study of one campus (Campus A) is presented. It is chosen for analysis because, of the three campuses on…

Although creativity plays a critical role in mathematics, it remains underestimated in the context of a mathematics classroom. This study aims to explore the views and differences creativity displays in prospective teachers and one of their lecturers with respect to the characteristics and practices of creative teachers and the characteristics of…

Blind students are bound to make up a very small part of the population most university lecturers will encounter during their careers. Research to date shows that good communication between staff and student improves the chances of a successful outcome for both parties. The research does show, however, that the exercise seems to be one of…