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Moodle learning space is very important in learning because it forms the foundation for why students learn their modules or subjects. Moodle learning space is divided into personal or self, societal or social and professional or subject spaces. When students understand Moodle learning spaces, they understand their curriculum responsibilities which are influenced by personal, societal/social and professional spaces. Therefore, this article presents a critical action research of three participants out of twenty university Master of Education students who specialised in Mathematics Curriculum. The purpose of the study was to explore the postgraduate students' reflections on their understanding of Moodle spaces used in learning a Mathematics curriculum module at a South African university. These postgraduate students were full time teachers and part time students at a South African university. The postgraduate students' reflective journals, one-on-one semi-structured interview, and Moodle observation were used for data production/generation. The study concluded that postgraduate students were not aware ofthe Moodle spaces that underpin their learning of a curriculum module. Although they were not aware of the Moodle spaces, three participants were able to apply them in their learning of the curriculum module. As a result of the application they were able to interpret the curriculum module. Participation in this study helped them to become aware of the importance of understanding Moodle spaces and critical reflections in order to apply these effectively. Purposive with convenience sampling was used to select the three most accessible participants from the twenty postgraduate students who participated in this study. This article consequently recommends the understanding of Moodle spaces that underpin their curriculum module, before learning takes place, in order to reflect on their learning and improve their performance in the curriculum module.

The current work is the first article in a two-paper series exploring the role of explicit learning objectives in undergraduate mathematics instruction. A definition of student-learning objective (SLO) is introduced. We give examples of SLOs for topics from introductory college and university mathematics courses. We list potential advantages of a general program of grounding mathematics instruction in a set of such explicit SLOs. In the second paper in this series, an explicit, step-by-step algorithm for creating sets of student learning objectives will be described and its use illustrated.

The article begins by highlighting recent trends and concerns in post-secondary Calculus and Precalculus education. The main purpose of the article is to discuss the transition to a new Precalculus/Calculus I two-semester course at Wabash College, a small liberal arts college for men. Three years of data from the earlier, traditional, sequence are compared to two years of preliminary data from the revised sequence. Learning theories are cited to justify the pedagogical value of the revised sequence and a list of possible sequence texts is provided. (Contains 3 tables.)

Math Assessment: Can it help us in our teaching?AbstractIn recent years there has been an emphasis on reducing attrition rates in first-year engineeringprograms through understanding the learning needs of the students and by trying to identifyunderlying deficiencies in their skill sets when they enter university. Moreover, research inengineering education has also indicated that pre-university assessment can be used to informbest practices in teaching first-year engineering courses. This research was initiated to addressthis need through a detailed examination of student responses to a twenty question pre-calculustest (Math Advisory assessment) that was administered in a first-year engineering program.In particular, this investigation focusses on a subset of results obtained from a fourteen yearlongitudinal study of first-year engineering students, where data was collected from a MathAdvisory assessment exam with the long term goal of using these results to identify students’math competencies/deficiencies which would, in turn, drive program directives. This subsetconsisted of math assessment results for one group of ~200 students, obtained in a pre and postfashion. The student responses, both pre and post, were examined in detail, and then compared totheir academic achievement, both prior to and at the end of their first-year engineeringexperience. Previous research using all of the data in the longitudinal study had indicated that theoverall average scores and the individual question scores from this exam were extremelyconsistent from year to year. The expectation, then, was that these results could be used to makereliable predictions regarding the math deficiencies of students entering first-year engineering, sothat interventions could be put in place to address these deficiencies.The results were analyzed using basic statistical methods. The gain in the average assessmentscore between the pre and post results was encouraging, since the average on the assessmentexam went from 50% prior to entering first-year engineering to 74% after completion of the first-year program; a statistically significant increase. The correct response rate was compared on anindividual question basis for the pre and post scenarios to determine the areas where deficienciescontinued to exist after the three first-year math courses. According to a classification schemethat was developed in an earlier study, deficiencies were most apparent in problem solvingquestions and trigonometry. Basic algebra skills improved substantially. From these results it isclear that the first-year curriculum should increase the focus on problem solving strategies, notonly in the math courses, but in the other first-year courses as well.The data was further explored to determine if there were strong correlations between the mathassessment results and academic indicators such as high school marks and grade point averages.There was a strong correlation between first term GPA and final cumulative GPA. There wereweak correlations between the Math Advisory exams and….Although this study used only a small subset of a larger longitudinal study, it has shown promisein the results that were obtained, providing a sound basis for continuing the study. This researchhas also provided the impetus to further and guidance in the direction to mine the data forinformation that will determine teaching practices to address specific math concerns.

A Surveying Course as Summer Experience for a Tribal College Pre-Engineering ProgramA surveying course has been designed and delivered for a tribal college pre-engineering program beingdeveloped under the tribal college-university Pre-Engineering Education Collaborative (PEEC) initiativeof the National Science Foundation. The collaborative, one of only four in the nation, is established tobring university engineering schools together with tribal colleges to develop pre-engineering programsin the tribal colleges. Under the collaborative, students will begin their studies in a pre-engineeringprogram at one of the four participating tribal colleges and then transfer to a university to completetheir studies. The program is in its second year and course development and delivery are in progress.The surveying course is offered as a summer experience over a two-week period during whichparticipating students from the tribal colleges assemble at the university. The course content isequivalent to that of the surveying course offered in a regular semester at the university; an objective ofthe program being to enhance instruction without lowering the bar. Surveying was chosen as the firstcourse to be offered because fieldwork (outdoor activity), integral to the course, is attractive to studentsand thus helpful to sustain their interest. Because most surveying endeavors require group work,students get a taste of working in teams to complete tasks. The ability to integrate applications oftrigonometry, computer aided graphics and spreadsheets into the course is another reason. Surveyingfieldwork requiring intense coordination and management of logistics afforded students opportunitiesto observe how tasks are accomplished. When condensing a 16 week semester schedule to a 2-weekcamp, the major concern was to allow reasonable time for studying, homework and reflection. Theschedule was, hence, set so that students were given time overnight before conducting tests andfieldwork on material taught any day. Being a hands-on course, much of the learning happened in thefield. Every attempt was made to ensure that students from different tribal colleges will work togetherin groups, thus increasing interactions among people across tribal reservations. On each fieldworkstudents were required to maintain a detailed record on a field book that was rigorously graded, andwrite a reflective journal to emphasize the need to develop into reflective practitioners. Two advancedgraduate students assisted the engineering professor in instructing the students on fieldwork andprocessing field observations using spreadsheets. Beyond that, they took the lead in designing andconducting a series of tutorials making students create survey maps using computer aided graphics, andgain experiences in algebra, trigonometry, numerical methods, statistics and calculus. Further, the twoperformed yeoman service helping students catch up whenever they fell behind, thus gaining an in-depth knowledge of challenges faced by students. Another activity was demonstration of GPS and GIStechnology by two currently active professional surveyors, and introduction to the working environmentin their firm. Overall, students gained experience that may stimulate interest to acquire skills towardspursuing a career in engineering. Details of the course and reflections on future improvements will bediscussed in the paper.

A PhD researcher is to examine why the UK has fared so badly at the Eurovision Song Contest in recent years, the Manchester Evening News reported on 10 April. Jamie Halliwell, a doctoral student in Manchester Metropolitan University's human geography department, will question BBC judges, music industry figures and fans to try to figure out what has happened since crowd-pleasing numbers such as Boom Bang-a-Bang and Puppet on a String scored notable wins, the paper said.

The Mathematics Workshop Program (MWP) was originally developed by P. Uri Treisman at the University of California at Berkeley in the late 1970's as a means to improve the mathematics achievement of minority students. A version of the MWP was implemented at California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly), San Luis Obispo in the mid 1980's. This Study examined the effect of participation in the Cal Poly MWP on final mathematics course grade. Because of the cooperative nature of the MWP activities, and the possibility that a student's gender might have an effect of his or her reaction to competitive or cooperative classroom activities, the effect of gender on this outcome was also investigated. For two consecutive quarters, the final course grade of six hundred seventy students in eighteen mathematics sections was compared with the final course grades of three hundred eighty-three students who also participated in the MWP, to determine if the grades of the students in MWP were significantly higher. These results were analyzed by gender to determine if the effect of MWP participation was greater for female students than male students. The results indicate that participation in the MWP does have a significant positive effect on the final mathematics course grade, although gender was found to have no statistically significant effect on this outcome. These findings suggest that more research is needed.