Connecting Students to Mathematics as a Modern Human Endeavour

Abstract

Students often enter university believing mathematics is a static toolkit for solving pre-packaged problems, with no sense of its living cultural context. Learning outcomes for mathematics subject rarely, if at all, reflect this gap in student knowledge. Yet the Australian Council of Deans of Science lists "explaining the ways in which science is a social endeavour that influences and is influenced by society" as a threshold learning outcome for science graduates in Australia. To bridge this gap, we redesigned our problem sets to include regular reflective tasks inspired by Professor Francis Su’s pandemic prompts. For example, Indigenous students read work by Professor Chris Matthews on Indigenous perspectives in mathematics education and compared fixed versus culture-shaped elements of mathematics. Over seven subjects and 2,000 students, student reflections produced rich insight and were repeatedly highlighted by students as thought-provoking. Our early experience suggests that positioning mathematics as an active human endeavour may provide students closer connection to their studies. The authors are currently undertaking a research project studying the impact of this reflective work on students' interest and engagement in their studies, their academic outcomes, and their desire to further their mathematical education.