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LEARNING MATHEMATICS AT UNIVERSITY LEVEL: INITIAL CONCEPTIONS OF MATHEMATICS

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LEARNING MATHEMATICS AT UNIVERSITY LEVEL: INITIAL CONCEPTIONS OF MATHEMATICS

Author: K. Crawford, S. Gordon, J. Nicholas & M. Prosser

Publication Year: 1993

Abstract

This paper reports preliminary results from an ongoing investigation to identify the conceptions of
mathematics held by beginning first year university students and their orientations to their
previous study of mathematics. A questionnaire was administered to approximately three hundred students during their first week at university. The questionnaire contained five open-ended
questions designed.to elicit students' own conceptions of mathematics and their orientations to
studying it. Two of these are discussed in this paper. Phenomenographic techniques were used to
analyse responses and identify qualitatively different categories of description.
In-depth interviews of a subsample of twelve students revealed details of the range of conceptions
of mathematics and the related qualitative differences in approaches to learning mathematics after
several weeks of university mathematics.
Analysis of responses revealed that, although a wide range of beliefs was elicited, the majority of
students view mathematics as a necessary set of rules and procedures to be learned by rote that are
unrelated to other aspects of their lives. The survey results also indicate a relationship between
conceptions of mathematics and approaches to studying mathematics at university level. There
was no evidence of gender differences in either conception of mathematics or approach to learning.
This paper will report on the evidence of relationships between conceptions of mathematics,
approaches to learning and course results. These preliminary results raise questions about the
impact of prior experience on approaches to learning mathematics at university level and the
quality of learning outcomes.

Type: research paper

K. CRAWFORD, S. GORDON, J. NICHOLAS, & M. PROSSER
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