Rethinking course structure: increased participation and persistence in introductory post-secondary mathematics courses

Introduction In recent years, there has been growing concern regarding the success of students in post-secondary mathematics courses [17, 33], and in fact some authors claim that future success in college and completion of a university degree can be affected by students’ success in a first-year mathematics course [26, 32]. Many large universities, including the one in this study, require students complete a math credit in order to qualify for graduation, regardless of the program they are enrolled in. Thus, success in a first-year math course plays a major role in students’ overall university success. The aforementioned authors believe that in order for individuals to be competitive in the workforce and for our society to be competitive in the world markets, our citizens need to be educated beyond the basic skill set. They must be able to understand and use advanced mathematical skills such as those gained in first-year mathematics courses and beyond. Therefore, it is critical that first-year mathematics courses become a “pump” rather than a “filter,” or a “door” rather than a “barrier” [35]. However, the lack of participation and persistence in undergraduate mathematics within and after students’ first-year course(s) is painting a bleak picture, one in which the revised course structure in this study attempts to address. By increasing students’ success in the first-year Abstract High failure and withdrawal rates in introductory post-secondary mathematics courses are a problem locally, nationally, and internationally. This leads to first-year mathematics courses creating a closed door, or a barrier, to further study of mathematics, of STEM disciplines, and in University as a whole. In this article, the authors describe the implementation of a modified course structure in a first-year undergraduate mathematics course. The new structure makes use of a combination of mastery learning strategies together with the beneficial effects of small class sizes to address the issues of historically high failure and withdrawal rates and low grade-point averages. Results show that careful planning of the structure of a course can have a positive effect on student success, and thus on attitude towards mathematics.