The influence of different teaching and learning strategies in mathematics – a case study

Abstract

This article is a case study that examines how the different teaching and learning strategies influence mathematical knowledge acquisition at university. The research hinged on how mathematics lecturers at universities teach and how students acquire the disseminated knowledge. Research stresses that most lecturers have teacher-centred teaching approaches and mathematics teaching is with minimal student participation. Research further asserts that teaching approaches that emphasise student participation is critical in enhancing effective classroom interaction. This means that, as students’ learning strategy is dominantly a participatory and collaborative one, lecturers are challenged to create a learning-as participation environment for effective mathematics classroom interaction. The article reports a study that was conducted among university students and lecturers in a mathematics course at a South African university. The findings were that most lecturers at the university use traditional non-interactive teaching approaches that create passive environments in contrast with the predominant participative learning strategies of most students.