Mathematics Resilience : What we know from the pre-tertiary literature and what we found researching mathematics resilience

This paper describes a two-phase pilot study that explored mathematical resilience amongst non-mathematics-specialist students in a tertiary institution in the UK. Two cohorts of first-year undergraduate students completed a modified version of an existing mathematical resilience instrument. This instrument measures the extent to which respondents are mathematically resilient. The association between respondents’ level of mathematical resilience scores and the type of pre-tertiary mathematics qualification they had achieved was explored. Also, the association between respondents’ level of mathematical resilience scores and their programme of study was explored. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a small number of first-year and second-year students to explore their experiences of learning mathematics and the strategies they use to persist with mathematics. Some preliminary findings of this pilot study and their implications for mathematics learning support practice and further research are reported