Eric.ed.gov – University Mathematics Students’ Study Habits and Use of Learning Materials

In this article, we report from a group (N=98) of students from two campuses of one Finnish university, on their study habits, and to what extent they use different kinds of learning materials in university mathematics courses. Our results show that the older students are more communicative with their teachers, whereas the younger students ask for help more often from fellow students. The sociomathematical norms that constitute the local study culture have a significant impact on the study habits and on the use of learning materials. For example, the use of videos and studying lecture materials before the lectures were clearly more usual at one campus than at the other. We also found some significant differences between the groups that are based on the study programmes. The students of mathematics without an intention to become a teacher were most traditional in their study habits, whereas the students of applied physics were most active to participate in teaching. The student teachers most often lie in the middle in the issues where the other groups differ from one another. Quite unexpectedly, students’ previous performance in upper secondary school does not explain the differences in the study habits in the university.