Niall McInerney and Kevin Brosnan

Challenges for tertiary level mathematics tutors with no

formal education training:

The experiences of two practitioners

10th Annual Irish Workshop on Mathematics Learning and Support Centres – 27th May 2016

Outline of presentation

Student Engagement

Introductions

Student Ability

Teaching Approaches

Teaching Support

Discussion Topics

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Niall McInerney (Introduction)

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• Education

• Teaching Experience

“My brother did this module last year, he told me to not bother going to class as it was a waste of time, the lecture slides are all online and the final exam is repetitive, so what’s the point?”

Student X

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The Problem

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The Solution

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Tutorials vs Support Tutorials

• Valuable, but not a solution.

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Learning Support

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3 lectures

2 tutorials

4 tutors

Midterm

Big Final

Exam

Module X (Current Model)

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Learning Outside of Lecture

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Online/reading

material

2 tutorials

Continuous

assessment

Midterm

Final Exam

Module X (Potential Model)

Kevin Brosnan

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Student Ability & Engagement

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Teaching Approaches

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Learning CentreSupport TutorialStandard Tutorial

Can we really teach all of these the same way?

Teaching Approaches

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OR

Teaching Support – Tutor Training

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Possible Discussion Topics

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• Teaching Environment – where do we put our focus?

• Student Engagement – do we bother?

• Student Ability – target the best, the worst or the average?

• Teaching Approaches – should these be standardised?

• Teaching Support – what needs to be done?

Thank you for listening!

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