Abstract:
Challenges experienced by first-year students transitioning from secondary to tertiary mathematics
education are examined through the lens of the didactical contract. The didactical contract describes
the expectations of both lecturer and students about their mutual obligations towards teaching and
learning. First-year students’ beliefs about the nature of mathematics and mathematics
teaching/learning need to be challenged to renegotiate the didactical contract at tertiary level. The
study focuses on how to elicit and confront transitioning students’ beliefs in order to support their
learning and influence a shift in the didactical contract. A Likert scale questionnaire was deployed at
the beginning of students’ first year to gauge their beliefs about mathematics and mathematics
teaching/learning and redeployed near the end of the first semester (or term) to observe possible
changes in their beliefs and hence the didactical contract. The intervention consisted of personal
response system (PRS) sessions regularly incorporated into the traditional transmission mode lecture
to flip the classroom and create a student-centred learning environment, aimed at influencing
students’ beliefs in order to make them aware of their own learning and their responsibility for
learning. Questionnaire data were quantified and compared for the before and after surveys. There is
evidence of a shift towards students taking ownership of their learning and a renegotiation of the
didactical contract. Qualitative data generated by focus group interviews confirm the role of the PRS
sessions in influencing student beliefs and the didactical contract.
