Abstract:

Foundational learning opportunities for students showing promise of academic potential is at the core of our institution’s access program known as the General Studies (GS) program. Aside from providing an array of institutional advising and support services, the GS program offers a range of small, discussion-oriented courses with content enhanced by embedded academic success skills and learning communities.

GS students taking the first mathematics course are required to register in specially designated sections with a maximum limit of 15 students. Extra requirements differentiate the pedagogical schema and the achievement measures for this section of the introductory mathematics course from that taken by students in the other academic majors.

The purpose of this research is two-fold. The primary goal is student learning-centered: to identify the range of factors, pedagogical as well as non-cognitive, that impact on the effective mathematics learning and achievement of these students. The secondary objective, though concurrent is instructor teaching-oriented: to develop a future teaching strategy integrating a refined or new pedagogical method with institutionally-supported learning opportunities to improve mathematics achievement and retention so as to successfully bridge GS students’ transition to other upper-level mathematics course and/or major courses with a mathematics prerequisite.

This paper chronicles the development, implementation and evaluation of a distinctly student-supportive learning and teaching environment in the first mathematics course for students on this recently established access program. It describes some of the findings of the on-going preliminary phase investigating a pilot group showing indications of the composite nature of the determinants of mathematics achievement of students admitted to the GS program of the institution.

Keywords:

Achievement, undergraduate mathematics, first course, General Studies, access program.