A Handbook for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Enhancing academic and Practice

252 ❘
Teaching in the disciplines
Support centres
Variously called learning centres, drop-in clinics, surgeries and so on, they all share the
aim of acting as an extra-curricular means of supporting students in an individual and
confidential way. Lawson et al. (2001) outline some excellent examples of good practice
here, and the concept is commendable and usually a cost-effective use of resources. One
can spread the cost by extending the facility to cover all students requiring mathematical
help across the institution. An exciting recent development is the emergence of the UK
Mathematics Learning Support Centre which will, through the agency of the Maths, Stats
and OR Network, freely make available to all staff and students in higher education a
large number of resources via a variety of media.
Interrogating practice
How does your department address the changing needs of students entering
higher education? What else could you do to address ‘gaps’ in knowledge,
skills and understanding?
Peer support
Mechanisms for students to support each other tend to be generic, but are included here,
as mathematicians have been slow to adopt some of these simple and successful devices.
There is a growing trend to the use of second- and third-year students in a mentoring role
for new students, supporting, but not replacing, experienced staff. Such student mentors
go under a number of names – peer tutors, ‘aunties’, ‘gurus’ – but the main idea is for them
to pass on their experience and help others with their problems. In at least one institution
such students receive credit towards their own qualifications in terms of the development
of transferable skills that the work evidences. It is clear that both parties usually benefit
– the mentors from the transferable skills they develop, and the mentored from the
unstuffy help they receive. It is of course essential that the mentors are trained for their
role, and that this provision is monitored carefully. Suggestions are enlarged and
expanded upon in Appleby and Cox (2002).
ISSUES PARTICULAR TO PURE MATHEMATICS
What, then, are the special and particular problems that lie in the way of effective teaching
and learning in pure mathematics? There are, of course, the issues of transition
and mathematical preparedness touched upon above. Lack of technical fluency will
be a barrier to further work in pure mathematics. However, there are deeper, more