Lecture attendance is a pivotal factor for improving prospective teachers' academic performance in Teaching and Learning Mathematics

• Published in: Journal of further and higher education 2017-01, Vol.41 (1), p.1-15
• Main Authors: Alzhanova-Ericsson, Alla T., Bergman, Christina, Dinnétz, Patrik
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Academic Achievement; collective tacit knowledge; Elementary School Mathematics; Elementary School Teachers; explicit knowledge; Learning; Lecture Method; logistic model; Mathematics; Mathematics Achievement; Mathematics Curriculum; Mathematics Education; Mathematics Instruction; Mathematics Teachers; natural sciences; Preschool children; Preschool education; Preservice Teachers; Public speaking; situated knowledge; Students; Tacit knowledge; Teaching
• ISSN: 0309-877X; 0013-1326; 1469-9486
• DOI: 10.1080/0309877X.2014.1000277

The value and importance of lectures in higher education is part of a modern education discourse worldwide. This study aims to estimate the importance of lectures for prospective teachers of kindergarten, preschool and early primary school. We analysed academic achievements of prospective teachers who had either mandatorily or voluntarily attended lectures in the subject of teaching and learning mathematics. Students' examination grades in a maths course with mandatory or voluntary lecture attendance were analysed with a logistic model testing the association between lecture attendance requirement and grades. We show that mandatory lecture attendance (1) more than double the odds of students receiving a pass grade when their situated and tacit knowledge was examined and (2) quadrupled the odds of students achieving the highest grade (pass with distinction) when both their understanding of elementary mathematics and their situated and tacit knowledge of teaching and learning mathematics were examined. Our study provides evidence for a significant positive role of lecture attendance for students acquiring skills in Teaching and Learning Mathematics. While attending lectures students receive situated tacit knowledge of the subject which is otherwise difficult, if not impossible, for them to obtain in a different way. The observed improvement may have an additional positive effect in being a step towards overcoming a maths anxiety, which is otherwise relatively common among prospective teachers.