Novel approaches to refresher courses in basic mathematics

The poor core mathematical skills of many students entering a wide range of further and higher education programmes continue to be a cause for concern for numerous mathematics educators. Some universities have responded by offering short “refresher courses” in basic mathematics to incoming first-year students in service-taught mathematics modules. However, traditional approaches to teaching these basic skills may simply echo students’ previous unsuccessful attempts to grasp these concepts. By introducing the material in a different way, students may be more engaged with the learning process, hopefully improving their ability to understand and retain the information involved. As a result, novel approaches to refresher courses were investigated by the authors, with a view to producing sample refresher sessions on common problem areas in basic mathematics…