Win-Win-Win: Drop-in Mathematics Support for Secondary School Students

Ciarán Mac an Bhaird, Aisling McGlinchey, Peter Mulligan

Abstract


Mathematics Learning Support (MLS), which is available in the majority of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in Ireland and the UK, is traditionally available only to students of those institutions. In this paper, we describe a drop-in model of MLS at Maynooth University (MU) which has been available for secondary school students since 2009. This service is mainly staffed by volunteer undergraduate trainee teachers. Their feedback, the main focus of this paper, which has been collected over ten years, indicates that this experience has had a positive impact on their teaching practice. School students are also very positive about the support and MU enthusiastically endorses the service. We conclude that there are no obvious downsides to the provision of this type of support and we believe that more institutions should consider making it available.


Keywords


Mathematics Learning Support, secondary school, teaching practice, evaluation, effectiveness.

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References


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DOI: https://doi.org/10.21100/msor.v22i2.1486

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