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Undergraduate Mathematics Teaching in First Year Lectures: Can it be Responsive to Student Learning Needs?

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Abstract

This paper investigates mathematics teaching to first year students of two mathematics departments in the context of large-group lectures. It goes beyond what may be seen as implicit in this context by focussing on the links between two lecturers’ thinking about students’ learning of advanced mathematics and their practice. Data includes lecture observations and reflective discussions with the lecturers. Three layers of data analysis are drawn on Activity Theory, the Teaching Triad, and, grounded analytical approaches. Findings suggest that the formation of teaching goals is motivated by aspects of sensitivity to student’s participation and that the complementarities among these aspects are important qualitative characteristics of teaching in this context.

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  1. Please note all citations were originally in Greek and have been translated into English for this paper by the first author.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece

    Georgia Petropoulou, Despina Potari & Theodossios Zachariades

  2. Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK

    Barbara Jaworski

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  1. Georgia Petropoulou
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  2. Barbara Jaworski
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  3. Despina Potari
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  4. Theodossios Zachariades
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Correspondence to Georgia Petropoulou.

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Petropoulou, G., Jaworski, B., Potari, D. et al. Undergraduate Mathematics Teaching in First Year Lectures: Can it be Responsive to Student Learning Needs?. Int. J. Res. Undergrad. Math. Ed. 6, 347–374 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40753-020-00111-y

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