Memory modes and mathematics among technical and further education trade students

Abstract

The present study attempts to explain the performance of technical and further education (TAFE) students in trade mathematics within the framework of modes of memory. It replicates and extends an earlier study, the findings of which led to the hypothesis that difficulties experienced by TAFE trade students are due to their inability to use symbolic forms of memory coding rather than their inability to form mathematical sets or hierarchies of sets. Two sets of stimuli, namely, action pictures and verbal labels were presented to a group of fitting students in order to test their ability to form superordinate groups (sets) and hierarchies of superordinate groups (hierarchies of sets). It was predicted that students with a record of high achievement in mathematics would produce a higher level of superordinate groupings than low mathematics achievement students on the verbal labels task but that there would be no difference in the superordinate groupings between high and low mathematics achievement students on the action pictures task. The predictions were confirmed between high and low achievers among fitting and machining students but not among electrical fitting students. Subsequently it was found that the electrical fitting students achieved at a higher level of mathematics than the fitting and machining students. It was concluded that low achievers in trade mathematics have difficulty in forming sets due to a lack of language facility rather than to an absence of cognitive structures, and it was suggested that appropriate remedlation programmes might begin with skills in using symbol systems, particularly language.