The Mathematics Problem and Mastery Learning for First-Year, Undergraduate STEM Students

In the first semester of the 2014 academic year Mastery Learning was implemented to address a lack of preparedness and poor outcomes of some undergraduate Science, Engineering and Mathematics students in their first-year Mathematics subjects. This followed partial success in the use of diagnostic testing and pre-teaching - under-prepared students were still more likely to fail the pre-teaching subject and to struggle with subsequent mathematics subjects. Also, failure rates overall were higher than benchmarks required. This paper describes the learning design used, and the outcomes achieved, with implementing Mastery Learning – the positive: improved academic success, time management, and attitudes towards learning and Mathematics, an increased sense of independence, confidence and retention of content, and reduced stress and anxiety; and the negative: students having a sense of being taught how to pass a test rather than having a deeper understanding of the content and the lack of confidence thereby instilled. It will be seen that differences in outcome are a consequence of small but important differences in the learning design.