Sustainable multi-disciplinary mathematics support

Abstract

Sound mathematical knowledge is an essential ingredient for student success in many disciplines, and quality mathematics support is crucial to that success. How that support is delivered is often the key to student engagement, satisfaction and positive outcomes. Many students require sound mathematical knowledge to engage in their discipline activities. Since lack of mathematical skill is a barrier to student retention, progression and self-efficacy, the onus is on the university to provide quality support. This paper describes the expansion of a cross-disciplinary model of mathematics support that has grown to include a suite of programmes that accommodate diverse needs. A previous study evaluated the model’s delivery in 2010–2012 for Chemistry, Physics, Biology and Statistics. Since then, not only have these programmes continued to run and expand, new ones have been implemented for further disciplines. After 17 bi-annual iterations, it is timely to investigate the extension of the original model and evaluate whether it continues to address the original objectives. Our findings reveal a high proportion of students who engage in a Maths Skills programme report increased mathematics confidence and skill, and subject pass rates of those who engage are almost always higher than the pass rates of those who do not.

KEYWORDS:

• Mathematics support
• mathematical skills
• quantitative skills
• multi-discipline
• mathematics confidence
• cross-discipline

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.