Engaging Students to Transform Tertiary Mathematics Education

A special issue of Education Sciences (ISSN 2227-7102). This special issue belongs to the section "Teacher Education".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 December 2025) | Viewed by 640

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Mathematics, Center for Science, Mathematics, and Computer Education, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE 68588, USA
Interests: student engagement; instructor professional learning; inclusive mathematics teaching and learning; cultivating mathematical belonging; institutional transformation; decolonizing mathematics

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Guest Editor
Department of Mathematics, Center for Science, Mathematics, and Computer Education, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE 68588, USA
Interests: active learning; inclusive teaching; student experiences in mathematics education; transforming postsecondary departments and institutions; mathematical modeling

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Guest Editor
Center for Science, Mathematics, and Computer Education, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE 68588, USA
Interests: student experiences in mathematics; mathematics instructor development; institutional transformation; inclusive teaching

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue will focus on engaging students to transform tertiary mathematics education. It is broadly recognized that tertiary mathematics teaching practices lag behind what we know to be effective teaching practices; involving students collaboratively in transformation efforts is a crucial practice for effective and sustainable changes. We invite authors to report on empirical studies contributing to research on improving tertiary mathematics education, focused on engagement with students inside and/or outside the mathematics classroom. The scope of this Special Issue encompasses a broad spectrum of topics including, but not limited to, the below themes.

Suggested themes:

  • Departmental transformation in tertiary mathematics;
  • Equitable and inclusive teaching practices to foster student belonging in mathematics;
  • Social justice and decolonizing curriculum development for tertiary mathematics courses;
  • Student–faculty partnerships for mathematics (e.g., partnerships with undergraduate learning or teaching assistants);
  • The use of student experience data to transform tertiary mathematics programs;
  • Professional learning for mathematics instructors to support student agency and/or the use of equitable and inclusive teaching practices;
  • Improving assessment practices for student learning;
  • Institutional partnerships to support transfer students in tertiary mathematics;
  • Instrument development to measure changes in teaching practices, instructor knowledge, instructor beliefs/values/attitudes/frames, student interest/belonging/attitudes in tertiary mathematics.

Prof. Dr. Wendy Smith
Dr. Amy Been Bennett
Dr. Rachel Funk
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • student engagement
  • tertiary mathematics education
  • instructor professional learning
  • inclusive mathematics teaching and learning
  • cultivating mathematical belonging
  • institutional transformation
  • decolonizing mathematics
  • mathematics assessment
  • institutional partnerships

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

27 pages, 936 KB  
Article
Seeing the Forest by Seeing the Trees: Using Student Surveys to Measure Instructional Practices
by Sandra L. Laursen and Tim Archie
Educ. Sci. 2025, 15(12), 1712; https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci15121712 - 18 Dec 2025
Viewed by 81
Abstract
Efforts to improve undergraduate education in mathematics and other STEM fields often work with instructors to implement research-based instructional practices that emphasize active and collaborative learning. To measure the progress and outcomes of such initiatives, researchers need measurement tools that are versatile, meaningful, [...] Read more.
Efforts to improve undergraduate education in mathematics and other STEM fields often work with instructors to implement research-based instructional practices that emphasize active and collaborative learning. To measure the progress and outcomes of such initiatives, researchers need measurement tools that are versatile, meaningful, and inexpensive to use, to know what teaching practices are occurring. Because students spend a great deal of time observing class conditions, they are well positioned to report the teaching that they experienced. We report results from some 2400 student surveys on the use of active and collaborative learning (ACL) approaches in over 200 recitation sections of gateway courses in tertiary mathematics, physics, and computer science. We developed a set of survey items, TAMI-SS, and a compound measure based on the items, called S-ACL for Student-reported Active and Collaborative Learning, that reflects the extent of active and collaborative learning as reported by students. We find that S-ACL scores compare favorably with instructor surveys and observations, and with students’ reports of their classroom experience using established measures. Moreover, S-ACL reflected departments’ progress in implementing ACL in recitations. When focused on specific, observable classroom behaviors, student surveys of instructional practice can be used to measure the progress of instructional change initiatives in mathematics and similar fields. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Engaging Students to Transform Tertiary Mathematics Education)
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