Strategic Teaching for Strategic Students by

Teaching a mathematics course to first year computing undergraduates is difficult because the class is large and it includes a wide range of ability and interest. It is even more difficult if the students adopt a strategic approach to their studies. We describe an attempt to counter these difficulties by the introduction of small group tutorials. The tutorial activities, which are characterized as formative assessment, aim to grab the students' time and attention, provide appropriate learning activities, give students feedback on their performance and help to shape their understanding of the relevance of the maths course to their degree program. The innovation is shown to have had a number of positive outcomes, including, it is claimed, helping reduce failure rates.