Student Co-Creation of Resources in a Second Year Linear Algebra Course

In this project, we investigated how designing their own tutorial questions could help level 2 mathematics students negotiate the often-challenging transition from level 1 in the Scottish curriculum. One student from the level 2 linear algebra course at the University of Aberdeen volunteered to create practice questions on topics of linear algebra they selected. Through analysis of the participant’s interview, we showed, in accordance with the literature, that the activity benefited them in terms of study skills (motivation, focus, independence), in terms of mathematics learning (deep learning and mathematical knowledge construction). We also found that the activity had contributed to improving the volunteer’s resilience to learning mathematics, and their sense of legitimate participation in the mathematics community. This has not been discussed in the literature and is a significant finding considering the known difficulty for mathematics students, in particular women, to feel they ‘belong’. This research further suggests that if the activity took place in groups, it could also help develop a peer-support community which students could rely on to negotiate the transition to level 2.