Joy of mathematical modelling: a forgotten perspective?

We argue the relevance of including an affective perspective in the mathematical modelling education research and emphasise its importance for the teaching and learning of mathematical modelling at all levels, especially at the university. Our argument is supported by a recent survey of mathematics lecturers’ views on mathematical modelling, several follow-up interviews, and a review of literature on mathematical modelling that relates to enjoyment, pleasure, and appreciation. Findings from the survey and the follow-up interviews indicate that there is a group of practitioners who hold strong views on the importance of enjoyment in doing and teaching mathematical modelling

How do students’ accounts of sociology change over the course of their undergraduate degrees?

In this article we examine how students’ accounts of the discipline of sociology change over the course of their undergraduate degrees. Based on a phenomenographic analysis of 86 interviews with 32 sociology and criminology students over the course of their undergraduate degrees, we constituted five different ways of accounting for sociology. These ranged from describing sociology as a form of personal development focused on developing the students’ opinion to describing sociology as a partial way of studying the relations between people and society. The majority of students expressed more inclusive accounts of sociology over the course of their degrees. However, some students’ accounts suggested they had become disengaged with sociology. We argue that the differences in the ways that students were disengaged were not captured by our phenomenographic categories. In conclusion, we argue that our analysis illustrates the crucial role that students’ relations to knowledge play in understanding the transformative nature of higher education