DIFFERENCES BETWEEN BEGINNERS’ AND EXPERIENCED STUDENTS’ APPROACHES TO LEARNING MATHEMATICS AT THE UNIVERSITY

Paper in proceeding, 2013

In this paper, we report on an on-going quantitative study of students’ transition from school to university mathematics. The study aims at examining differences between beginners and experienced students’ approaches to learning mathematics. Students were given questionnaires in the beginning and at the end of their first year at university. The results were summarized with descriptive and interferential statistics. The results show that beginners rely heavily on the teacher, while experienced students re-orient themselves from the teacher to other kinds of mathematical resources, for example peers and Internet based resources.