Mathematics has long been known to be problematic for university engineering students and their teachers, for example, Scanlan.[ 1 Scanlan JO . The role of mathematics in engineering education: an engineer's view. Int J Math Educ Sci Technol. 1985;16:445–451. [Taylor & Francis Online] [Google Scholar] ] This paper presents recent data gathered from interviews with engineering students who experienced problems with mathematics and their lecturers during their transition through the first year in different programme contexts. Our interviews with the students reveal how they understand the relation between engineering and mathematics and we draw on the concept of ‘use- and exchange-value’ to explore this relationship more fully. This paper challenges both the pedagogical practice of teaching non-contextualized mathematics and the lack of transparency regarding the significance of mathematics to engineering. We conclude that the value of mathematics in engineering remains a central problem, and argue that mathematics should be a fundamental concern in the design and practice of first-year engineering.

The construct of identity has been used widely in mathematics education in order to understand how students (and teachers) relate to and engage with the subject (Kaasila, 2007; Sfard & Prusak, 2005; Boaler, 2002). Drawing on cultural historical activity theory (CHAT), this paper adopts Leont’ev’s notion of leading activity in order to explore the key ‘significant’ activities that are implicated in the development of students’ reflexive understanding of self and how this may offer differing relations with mathematics. According to Leont’ev (1981), leading activities are those which are significant to the development of the individual’s psyche through the emergence of new motives for engagement. We suggest that alongside new motives for engagement comes a new understanding of self—a leading identity—which reflects a hierarchy of our motives. Narrative analysis of interviews with two students (aged 16–17 years old) in post-compulsory education, Mary and Lee, are presented. Mary holds a stable ‘vocational’ leading identity throughout her narrative and, thus, her motive for studying mathematics is defined by its ‘use value’ in terms of pursuing this vocation. In contrast, Lee develops a leading identity which is focused on the activity of studying and becoming a university student. As such, his motive for study is framed in terms of the exchange value of the qualifications he hopes to obtain. We argue that this empirical grounding of leading activity and leading identity offers new insights into students’ identity development.

We address the current concerns about teaching‐to‐the‐test and its association with declining dispositions towards further study of mathematics and the consequences for choice of STEM subjects at university. In particular, through a mixed study including a large survey sample of over 1000 students and their teachers, and focussed qualitative case studies, we explored the impact of ‘transmissionist’ pedagogic practices on learning outcomes. We report on the construction and validation of a scale to measure teachers’ self‐reported pedagogy. We then use this measure in combination with the students’ survey data and through regression modelling we illustrate significant associations between the pedagogic measure and students’ mathematics dispositions. Finally, we discuss the potential implications of these results for mathematics education and the STEM agenda.

In this paper we explore how students can experience the relevance of mathematical modelling activities. In the literature we found that relevance is a connection among several issues (relevance of what? to whom? according to whom? and to what end?). We framed this concept in terms of Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT), a theory for analysing how individuals engage in activities within social environments. We designed modelling activities within a mathematics course for engineering students: there were ample mathematical modelling tasks, a guest lecture by an employee from an engine company who used mathematical modelling in his job, and a group work modelling assessment with a presentation to the whole group. After the course, we interviewed ten students with a wide range of final grades in the course. We analysed the interview data in light of the theoretical framing of the concept of relevance. Our analysis showed that, generally, students experienced the modelling activities as relevant, and that they imagined themselves working in professional practices for which mathematics is relevant. However, doing mathematics was also judged as being relevant only to obtain grades, leave school and enter professions for which mathematics might not be needed. We offer recommendations for making mathematics education more relevant to more students.

We examine the transition from school (compulsory education) to college (post-compulsory/pre-university) of students who are continuing their mathematical education. Previous work on transition between institutions suggests that transitional problems can be critical, and students often regard mathematics as ‘difficult’ during transitional periods. However, our analysis of students' interviews showed a more positive discourse, one of reported challenge, growth and achievement; transition was not seen as an obstacle but as an opportunity to develop a new identity. Particularly in relation to mathematics, this was reflected in a need for a better understanding of the subject, and for being more responsible for their learning. Thus, we propose to re-think transition as a question of identity in which persons see themselves developing due to the distinct social and academic demands that the new institution poses. Conceptualising transition in this way could have important practical implications for the way that institutions support students' transition.

This paper examines ‘resilience’ of mathematics students in transition from a sociocultural perspective, in which resilience is viewed as relational and in particular as a function of the social and cultural capital students may bring to the new field. We draw on two students’ stories of transition, in which we recognise elements traditionally viewed as ‘risks’ for mathematics students in transition into institutions where new demands are made. However, in each case it seems that some of their apparent background ‘risk factors’—coming from poorer socioeconomic backgrounds and disadvantaged schools—have come to serve to constitute capital, buttressing their particular resilience, as they provide a crucial kind of autonomy that is particularly valued in the new institution. We identify the learners’ reflexivity as having been crucial to this accumulation of capital and we discuss some educational implications.