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Problems faced by mathematics students at the school/higher education interface

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2016

David Towers
David Towers*
Affiliation:
Department of Mathematics, University of Lancaster, Bailrigg, Lancaster LA1 4YL
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Extract

I, in common with many others, dislike pretentious titles, particularly ones which disguise human problems in the jargon of computer hardware, so I sympathise if mine leaves you cold. The difficulties which I want to address are the emotional and academic ones so often encountered in the transition from secondary education to a degree course containing a major component of mathematics. They are difficulties of which I have been aware for many years, but on which my attention has been focused more sharply by two recent conferences: the first was the Mathematical Association annual conference in Manchester at which I was asked to lead splinter group discussions on this topic, and the second was the latest University of Nottingham Undergraduate Mathematics Teaching Conference at which I participated in a group discussing “Perennial difficulties” (and which will issue a report later this year). The very title used at the latter meeting expresses clearly the intractability of many of these problems.

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Type
Research Article
Information
The Mathematical Gazette , Volume 69 , Issue 449 , October 1985, pp. 180 - 187
Copyright
Copyright © Mathematical Association 1985

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