Undergraduate mathematics diversified for non-standard entrants - whatever next! A case of teaching assistants and the curriculum

This paper draws upon data from a longitudinal study of the first cohort of five students making the transition from teaching assistant in secondary school to specialist teacher of secondary mathematics via a new full-time honours degree in Mathematics Education Studies beginning in September 2002. Data from a second cohort of four women and one man starting in 2003 is less complete, but used as appropriate. To complete the degree each student must necessarily continue to work as a teaching assistant, and must complete some assessed work in their school setting. The study is thus located within theorised literature of widening participation, student choice, and learning mathematics. It is timely in view of government policy of a �remodelled school workforce� (DfES, 2004) whereby the stated intention is to complement a reduced cadre of qualified teachers with an enhanced number of staff supporting teaching and learning. I argue, using Bernstein�s work (1996) on subject classification, this student group represents a different type of learner, navigating simultaneously two mathematics discourses: �hard� university mathematics, and �everyday mathematics� as experienced by the lower ability school pupils that the students support when at work. Widening participation rhetoric focuses on enticing people into learning who would not otherwise be there (Hillage and Aston, 2001). This account relates to people who, despite being unqualified are already in educational institutions, i.e. schools, through their work. These are people who are �pre-disposed� favourably towards higher education (see for example Billet, 2001), and for whom progression is what is desired. The students have undergone a long, and autodidactical preparation for university study, illustrated in a variety of ways through previous personal and professional engagement with learning. The first group were aged between 35 - 49 on entry to the university, and all working as teaching assistants in three schools, two in each of two schools, and one in a third. None had higher than Grade B Intermediate GCSE in mathematics, but all had qualifications gained through continuing education as adults: in counselling, embroidery, art, design, numeracy, literacy and computer qualifications between them. In comparison with �traditional� mathematics undergraduates1, i.e. higher than average A-level points scores on entry, and mainly following on straight from school, the first group of students have extremely limited mathematics qualifications. None has any parents, brothers or sisters that had attended university, and only one has graduates in her immediate family: her husband and daughter. In terms of national data on student populations as a whole (UCAS, Labour Force Survey, Office for National Statistics, 2004) this group is older than almost three-quarters of the undergraduate population and in a lower social class than half of them. The second group show some differences from the first, not in so far as their mathematics qualifications, but in the fact that two of them are already graduates of other subjects. Nevertheless, students are progressing through the programme, between them achieving the full range of marks, and, unlike traditional mathematics students, so far there has been no drop-out. These students exemplify a different type of mathematics learner, those for who mathematics has never been easy, have never been recognised as talented, and who have developed as a consequence successful strategies for dealing with the practically inevitable difficulties. They are people with specific graduate professional ambitions entering the academy with low level formal mathematics qualifications. These distinctions are forcing a rethink of what success in mathematics means, what may be useful pre-requisites in terms of pre-qualification, and the potential relationship between university learning of mathematics alongside work-place learning, in this case in a secondary school mathematics department

U.S. production abroad

Production (Economic theory) ; Productivity

Enter late, exit early

Employment ; Labor supply

The Euro: new currency and new data

Euro

The role of the euro as an international currency

The creation of the euro will link an economy that is nearly as large and as open as the United States. Does this imply that the euro will rival the role of the dollar as an international currency? This paper addresses this question through an examination of the determinants of the use of an international currency. It examines both the prospects of the euro becoming an international currency and the implications for the European Union and the United States.European currency unit ; European Monetary System (Organization)

A look inside two central banks: the European Central Bank and the Federal Reserve

In 1998 the European Central Bank (ECB) became the world’s 173rd central bank. The Eurosystem, with its structure of national central banks and the ECB, is similar to the Federal Reserve System, with its District Banks and Board of Governors. However, important differences exist in the way the two systems operate. This article compares the organization and tasks of the two central banks by examining differences in their monetary policy frameworks, specifically focusing on the goals, tools, and policymaking process. In addition it examines the independence, accountability, and transparency of these central banks.European Central Bank ; Federal Reserve System ; Monetary policy

Growth and the current account deficit

Balance of trade ; Budget deficits

AFES Miscellaneous Publication 2013-03

Tracking the growth and development of a new industry is critical to the assessment of its success. Growers, industry support groups, government leaders, educational and research organizations and more use basic statistics on crop production, markets, and growth over time to support and fund activities that promote this industry. Annual statistics also provide an indicator of industry health and can be used to develop models of long-term trends in industry growth. Beginning in 2011, the University of Alaska Fairbanks Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station began compiling industry statistics. We summarize confidential grower information to provide baseline data that the industry can use to obtain funding, make business decisions, and promote their industry

Finally falling: unemployment duration

Unemployment ; Labor market

Southern California marine sport fishing from privately owned boats: catch and effort for October-December 1982

The catch landed and effort expended by private-boat sport fishermen were studied in southern California marine waters between October and December 1982, to determine the impact of one segment of the sport fishery on local marine resources. Fishermen returning from fishing trips were interviewed at launch ramps, hoists, and boat-rental facilities. This report contains quantitative data and statistical estimates of total effort, total catch, catch of preferred species, and length frequencies for those species whose catches are regulated by minimum size limits. An estimated 157,000 organisms were landed by 57,700 anglers and 4800 divers. The major components of the angler catch were Pacific mackerel, Scomber japonicus (28,700 estimated catch): white croaker, Genyonemus lineatus (24,000 estimated catch); and Pacific bonito, Sarda chiliensis (16,700 estimated catch). These three species represented almost half the total estimated angler catch. Rockfishes, Sebastes spp: were a major catch component; the 35 rockfish species landed made up 24% of the estimated catch. Divers landed an estimated 14,700 fishes and invertebrates. Chief among these were abalone, Haliotis spp. (4200 estimated catch); rock scallop, Hinnites rugosus (3600 estimated catch); and California spiny lobster, Panulirus interruptus (2500 estimated catch). Angler and diver compliance with size-limit regulations was generally favorable, with diver compliance being particularly scrupulous, especially with invertebrate species. The compliance rate for California halibut, Paralichthys californicus, showed a drop from the previous quarter (July - September 1982) from 70 to 59% legal. During the same time period, size-limit compliance rose from 4 to 20% for Pacific bonito, a species with a tolerance allowing the take of some under-sized fish. (28p.