Meanjin Delta 2025 Proceedings: The 15th Southern Hemisphere Conference on the teaching and learning of undergraduate mathematics and statistics

Students’ beliefs about mathematics influence their learning behaviour and, potentially, achievement. This investigation surveyed two large classes of first-year engineering students on entry to university and at the end of their first-year mathematics module. One class began their degree programme in academic year 2018/19 and the other, whose secondary education was disrupted by the covid-19 pandemic, started university in 2023/24. The students had a strong appreciation of the value of mathematics to their studies and career and a strong acceptance of struggle; these beliefs strengthened over the module. Beliefs associated with a growth mindset were dominant and student confidence was generally high. However, the 2023/24 class was less assured than the 2018/19 class. Some increase in confidence was observed over the year for the latter group, this being more noticeable for the students of higher ability, but there was little change in confidence for the 2023/24 class. Females believed more strongly in the value of mathematics and seemed more strongly to enjoy trying to solve new problems. Self-efficacy was relatively high and increased over the year. It is suggested that the teaching and learning methods – weekly practice, frequent opportunities for peer review, inclusion of problems with engineering applications – had a positive impact on students’ beliefs.