Mathematic & mathematics education: searching for common ground, edited by M. Fried and T. Dreyfus, New York, Springer, 2014, 402 pp., £90, ISBN 978-94-007-7472-8

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Research in Mathematics Education on 22nd Aug 2014, available online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14794802.2014.93735

Mediterranean Models of Welfare Towards Families and Women

After an historical Excursus on Malta's history, society, culture and institutions with their effects on female condition and on family structure and concept, the paper gives a survey of most recent Malta's economic and demographic trends with special attention to families and women, based on statistical data of the National Institute of Statistics and on the results of a sample research. After drawing this scenario, the paper makes a short History of Malta's Welfare State specially concerning family and women. In this treatment a deeper investigation is devoted to the latest "Action Plan", the national social plan in its general lines of intervention towards family and women. The strategic lines (public, private, non profit) of welfare mix are examined in relation to their amounts, results and to the coherence with the moving social context. Finally the paper develops a comparison between different european models of welfare towards family, more specifically between Malta and Italy.

Mediterranean models of Welfare towards families and women

After tracing a Malta’s short historical excursus with its effects on female condition, family’s structure and concept, organizational model of non profit sector, the paper gives a survey of the most recent economic and demographic trends with special attention to families’ well-being and women’s working and social conditions, based not only on statistical data of Malta’s National Institute of Statistics and of Eurostat, but also on the results of some empirical studies based on some surveys carried out into the archipelago. The main islands’ social problems are outlined with the indication of the principal sources of aid to face peoples’ different needs (first of all family, followed by the State, while the Third Sector, with its strong component of foundations, heritage of English culture, is not pre-eminent yet). The paper also shows that the same citizens’ expectations of satisfaction of social needs are still mainly placed in the State, according to the collective image. After drawing this scenario, the paper makes a short history of Malta’s Welfare State specially considering legislation concerning families and women. In addition to the description of the legislative measures, a deeper investigation is also devoted to other programs realized at european and national level: Equal Program (2004-2006) and Malta’s latest “Action Plan”, alias the National Social Plan in its general lines of policy towards families and women. Besides the illustration of the services provided to families by the Ministry of Family and Social Solidarity in the context of the National Action Plan, three other articulations of the Plan are briefly examined: Gender Equity National Action Plan (2003-2004), National Action Plan on Poverty and Social Exclusion (2004-2006), National Action Plan for Employment (2004). The correlative institutional framework is also reviewed: the National Family Commission established in 2001 and the National Commission for the Promotion of Equality for Men and Women considered by the “Equality for Men and Women Act” of 2003. Finally the paper classifies Malta’s Welfare State among the Mediterranean models of social assistance for its specific characteristics though, differently from the evolutive tendencies of these last ones, the passage from Welfare State to Welfare Mix is still problematic and slow in Malta. In spite of the increasing forms of collaboration between public and non profit organizations, Malta’s Third Sector has still a too weak role, in comparison with family and State, in supporting people’s life on both factual and symbolic dimension. In this missing transition, specially as regards elderly care, Malta can not see yet the growth, inside Welfare Mix, of the more informal components formed by immigrated women to detriment of the services offered by private or non profit organizations (“care drain” phenomenon), which is very strongly in course in other Mediterranean countries (Italy, Spain, Greece).Family and Social Policy, Social Segregation, Poverty

Investigating secondary school students' epistemologies through a class activity concerning infinity

In this paper, we report findings from a pilot study investigating school students' epistemologies of mathematics by using novel mathematics definitions. Students aged 17 and 18-year-old in Italy and the UK were asked to complete a worksheet that used a numerical approach to determine the sizes of infinite sets and were, then, invited to attend focus group interviews about their experience with the material. Thematic analysis of the interviews reveals that this approach is useful to distinguish between naïve and advanced epistemologies and using unseen mathematical definitions can help enrich our understanding of epistemologies held by students of school age

Analysing university closed book examinations using two frameworks

Assessment influences students’ approaches to learning and conveys to the learners what the exam-setters value. Frameworks have been developed in order to understand and analyse the demands of the assessment tasks. In this paper, two frameworks are used to analyse one undergraduate closed book examination in abstract algebra. The analysis of the tasks resulting from the two frameworks are presented and discussed. Finally, some aspects regarding the applicability of the frameworks are highlighted and further steps are suggested

Guided notes for university mathematics and their impact on students' note taking behaviour

This paper reports findings from a case study of the impact that using guided notes has on university mathematics students’ note taking behaviour. Whereas previous research indicates that students do not appreciate the importance of lecturers’ non-written comments and record in their notes only what is written on the board when taught with the traditional chalk and talk method, some students in our study recorded the non-written comments as well as some of their own links between sections of the lecture. We did not however find students’ attitude towards those comments to be different from what previous research found. We conclude that guided notes can be an appropriate way of teaching university mathematics but on their own cannot make the pedagogical intentions of the lecturer clearer to the students. We also found that the educational environment plays a big part on all aspects of student learning, including on decisions related to note taking during lectures

The impact of high stakes oral performance assessment on students’ approaches to learning: a case study

This paper presents findings from a case study on the impact of high stakes oral performance assessment on third year mathematics students’ approaches to learning (Entwistle and Ramsden, Understanding student learning, 1983). We choose oral performance assessment as this mode of assessment differs substantially from written exams for its dialogic nature and because variation of assessment methods is seen to be very important in an otherwise very uniform assessment diet. We found that students perceived the assessment to require conceptual understanding over memory and were more likely to employ revision strategies conducive to deep learning (akin to conceptual understanding) when preparing for the oral performance assessment than when preparing for a written exam. Moreover, they reported to have engaged and interacted in lectures more than they would have otherwise, another characteristic conducive to deep learning approaches. We conclude by suggesting some implications for the summative assessment of mathematics at university level

Students’ experiences of teaching at secondary school and university: sharing responsibility for classroom engagement

In recent years much research has focused on student engagement, both at school and at university level. This attention is motivated by the pivotal role that engagement plays in student learning and in the student experience and retention (at university level at least). Acknowledging that student engagement is a multifaceted construct we focus on the contribution that teaching and teacher traits make to the quality of student engagement, from the student’s perspective. In this small scale study we adopt a qualitative methodology to investigate in-depth students’ perceptions of what factors impact on their engagement in class and what role the students themselves have in fostering such engagement. Focus group and one to one interviews with students in the last year of school and at university were analysed to reveal four overarching themes related to classroom life and student engagement including the importance of active listening from the part of both students and teachers. The Refined Quality Teaching Initiatives Framework derived from integrating findings from this study and our review of the literature outlines how dual engagement and active listening can be viable pedagogical strategies both at school and university level. The framework also brings to the fore the active role and responsibilities that students have, in their own perceptions, for engagement in the classroom. We conclude with a reflection on the implications of our findings for teacher actions in the classroom and teacher training

The Secondary-Tertiary Transition in Mathematics. Successful Students in Crisis

The transition from secondary school into university mathematics – also referred to as secondary-tertiary transition (STT) – is a sensitive moment for many students, also for those who have achieved high marks at the end of their schooling and are considered excellent in mathematics in the school context. The cognitive aspect has interested researchers since the late seventies, but the interest in other two aspects (social and emotional aspects) is growing. Recently we have investigated the emotional aspect further and we will report here on some of our findings underlying the necessary developments