All through middle school and high school I was very strong in maths, and I always really enjoyed it, including the introductory calculus course I took in grade 12. Like most science students, I took a calculus class in my fist year of university. It was a terrible experience for me. The material didn’t seem to link to any maths I had learned before, and I really struggled. The professor was very disengaged, gave little to no context for what we were learning, and delivered his lectures with no enthusiasm (or even really an acknowledgement that there was a class in front of him). I also had a very hard time understanding the professor due to a strong accent. I certainly don’t place all the blame on the professor: the material was more difficult than I had encountered in high school, and I didn’t step up my effort accordingly. Also, it was my first time living away from home, and I have to admit I put at least equal emphasis on socializing and drinking beer as I did on school.
I passed the class with an adequate grade, but at the end of the semester I felt like I actually understood less about calculus than I did going in. I was totally demotivated about mathematics in general, and calculus in particular. Worse than that, my confidence about my own ability was shot. I was required to take a second maths course, which I did (intro linear algebra), but I never fully engaged and was mostly just glad when it was over. It wasn’t until my graduate work when I really started to realize that my mathematical background was inadequate to do some of the things that I was interested in. I saw fellow students doing really neat modelling work that I thought was fascinating, but I couldn’t participate in it.
What could have been done differently? For starters, I could have (and should have) worked harder, there’s no disputing that. Outside of my own failings though, I think if one of two conditions had been met, I would have had a much better experience:
- The professor was excited and enthusiastic about the material. Enthusiasm is infectious, and even if you’re not personally motivated about a topic, it’s easy to get engaged if the person teaching it is.
- I had been able to see the applicability of what I was learning. This is difficult to do in a foundational course that is supposed to serve all students of all backgrounds and academic paths, however occasional and varied examples would at least start to serve this purpose. Coincidentally, ecologist Brian McGill has just put up a great post over on the Dynamic Ecology blog on an integrated approach to teaching maths to ecologists. I think this kind of approach could work in most disciplines.