Mathematics learning support centres in Germany—an overview

Abstract

Mathematics learning support centres (MLSC) are widely established and evaluated in English-speaking countries (such as the UK, Ireland and Australia). In most of these countries, several national surveys on MLSCs exist. They give an overview of the number of MLSCs as well as their characteristics in these countries. In Germany, there is a lack of studies on MLSCs and the landscape of MLSCs has not been described yet. This article presents basic information concerning counts of MLSCs and their characteristics at universities. Based on a three-step approach of analysing university homepages and additional personal contact via email or phone calls, we gathered typical MLSC features (e.g. staff quantities and qualification, opening and support hours, supported study programmes). We analysed 190 universities from a web-based register on study programmes. In total, we found 61 MLSCs located at 51 German universities. Another 16 support centres were specialized on mathematics didactics, which means they focussed on didactical and methodological support for preservice teacher students and often provided different teaching materials. Thirty-eight centres were located at universities (62.3%) and 23 MLSCs at universities of applied sciences and comparable universities (37.7%). The MLSCs were different in their sizes of staff and opening hours, and both the numbers of staff and the service hours differed greatly. The student groups MLSCs at German universities focus on differ concerning characteristics like study programme or semester. We will provide the main categories describing these groups. We seek to answer research questions concerning the characteristics of MLSCs in Germany and discuss the results compared to international findings. This information is useful for further international collaborative research, for example a standardized international survey. From a national perspective, these findings support networking and collaborations between the MLSCs as well. As some German MLSCs are facing financial cuts, these results might help in gaining additional funding.

Consultation Phases in Mathematics Learning and Support Centres

“…Frischemeier et al, 2016;Milfeit et al, 2018;Panse et al, 2018;Wlassak, 2018). In the research project WiGeMath, 1 an overview on prevalence of MLSCs in Germany and their main characteristics was published (Schürmann et al, 2020) and systematic evaluations on six German MLSCs were conducted (Hochmuth et al, 2018). The MLSCs in Germany vary according to the type of higher education institution at which they are anchored, in terms of the qualifications and size of the staff, and the opening and supervision times.…”

“…Conceptually, mathematical learning centres particularly differ in the qualifications of their staff who offer individual advice. As mentioned above, learning centres employ student assistants as tutors for the support, employ academic staff or use both groups for the support (Schürmann et al, 2020). Overall, the results of the WiGeMath project show a positive assessment of the six MLSCs, the respective framework conditions and the quality in general, and in particular of the support given to students, by either tutors or academic staff (Hochmuth et al, 2018).…”

“…Students also use the MLSC as an additional learning environment to work on mathematical study assignments by themselves or in learning groups (Hochmuth et al, 2018). Just now 61 MLSCs with focus on mathematic support and 16 additional MLSCs focusing on support for mathematics didactics exist in Germany (Schürmann et al, 2020).…”

“…In Germany, 47.5% of the MLSCs employ tutors (under-or postgraduate students) and only in 11.9% support is given by academic staff only. In 40.7% of all MLSCs a mix of both groups is employed (Schürmann et al, 2020). Grove and colleagues (2019b) aggregated their findings and showed that in the UK and Ireland most MLSCs are run by part-or full-time staff (78%) whereas post-or undergraduate tutors are less common (46%, 26% respectively).Within a national survey in the USA (Johnson & Hanson, 2015) the result showed that in most mathematic tutoring centres undergraduates (87%) were common staff followed by graduate students (33%) and professional staff (27%) or faculty members (30%).…”

Mathematics support centres’ online presence: provision in Ireland and the UK in 2018

“…The availability of MLS has increased dramatically in recent decades and is now available in the majority of HEIs across Ireland and the UK (Ahmed et al, 2018, Cronin et al, 2016. Ongoing research is looking at the level of MLS provision in Germany (Schürmann et al, 2020) and the USA (Mac an Bhaird and Thomas, in preparation), and MacGillivray (2008) describes the situation in Australia.…”