Use of OULive recordings of `live mathematics’ and discussion forums on a level 3 Pure mathematics module in order to enable students to move to a growth mindset in maths and to add a social dimension to learning mathematics

Project leader(s): Hayley Ryder Tacey O'Neil

Theme: Supporting students
Project faculties: STEM
Status: Archived
Date: October 2017 to January 2025

Highly Commended - eSTEeM Scholarship Projects of the Year Awards 2025.

Students on a level 3 60 credit module, with excellent TMA scores, were dropping out or deferring. Analysis of over 4000 forum posts, student records and email correspondence indicated that this was because they were struggling with the emotional aspects of the learning experience and possibly lacked mathematical resilience.

M303 is a 60 credit third year course in pure mathematics covering the standard topics found in most such university courses at this level. This inevitably involves studying very abstract material containing many proofs. When students encounter proof and abstraction, they often become stuck, and this can cause them to feel frustrated and anxious. Students often believe that a good mathematician simply knows, or can quickly spot, the correct answer to a question or the appropriate method to use. This is accentuated by a common teaching style where the tutor or lecturer states a problem and then immediately writes the correct solution onto the board.

To combat this, the module team produced a series of pre-recorded informal online lectures in which two mathematicians discussed mathematical concepts in a conversational style, worked through examples “live”, and used narratives and descriptions to model the act of creating mathematics and to emphasise that time, struggle, and confusion usually underpin the process.

There is plentiful literature on developing mathematical resilience, and on the related concept of mathematical anxiety. However, the existing literature tends to focus on school children, disadvantaged groups or students studying service mathematics. There is also literature that looks at mistakes in mathematics, but we do not know of any other attempts to increase mathematical resilience in third year university mathematics students by showing them authentic mathematics being performed in real time by mathematicians. Therefore, this work is new. In the UK there is increasing focus by the Office for Students on retention, continuation and completion, and so anything that may decrease student drop out or deferral at level 3 is important.

We used a mixed methods approach to evaluate the effect of the sessions and the results were very positive.

We are now working to create an accessible set of these sessions on M303 and are rolling them out onto the mathematics MSc programme. We recommend that similar sets of informal and conversational style recordings are used on more modules, particularly where resilience, anxiety or imposter syndrome appear to be issues.