Secondary-tertiary transition: what mathematics skills can and should we expect this decade?

Paper


Jourdan, Nic, Cretchley, Patricia and Passmore, Tim. 2007. "Secondary-tertiary transition: what mathematics skills can and should we expect this decade?" Watson, Jane and Beswick, Kim (ed.) 30th Annual conference of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia (MERGA30). Hobart, Australia 02 - 06 Jul 2007 Adelaide, South Australia.
Paper/Presentation Title

Secondary-tertiary transition: what mathematics skills can and should we expect this decade?

Presentation TypePaper
AuthorsJourdan, Nic (Author), Cretchley, Patricia (Author) and Passmore, Tim (Author)
EditorsWatson, Jane and Beswick, Kim
Journal or Proceedings TitleProceedings of the 30th Annual Conference of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia (MERGA 30)
Journal Citation2, pp. 463-472
Number of Pages10
Year2007
Place of PublicationAdelaide, South Australia
ISBN9781920846138
Web Address (URL) of Paperhttp://www.merga.net.au/documents/RP412007.pdf
Conference/Event30th Annual conference of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia (MERGA30)
Event Details
30th Annual conference of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia (MERGA30)
Parent
Annual conference of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia
Delivery
In person
Event Date
02 to end of 06 Jul 2007
Event Location
Hobart, Australia
Abstract

We report on the mathematics competencies of 206 Engineering and Science students commencing an algebra and calculus course at an Australian university in the first semester of 2006. To inform course design in the face of growing student diversity, skills were assessed via a pre-test covering six fundamental areas. These data were also compared with the 1997 to 2001 data. The findings revealed reasonable skills with arithmetic, fractions,
and index laws but ongoing weaknesses in areas of algebra, functions, and trigonometry. These findings have important implications for planning in Australian universities.
Implications for school curricula are also considered.

Keywordssecondary-tertiary transition; mathematics competency; apptitude; mathematical knowledge; knowledge assessment; algebra; calculus
ANZSRC Field of Research 2020390109. Mathematics and numeracy curriculum and pedagogy
490401. Algebra and number theory
390113. Science, technology and engineering curriculum and pedagogy
Public Notes

File reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher/author.

Byline AffiliationsDepartment of Mathematics and Computing
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