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New insights about the secondary–tertiary transition in mathematics

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Abstract

In this concluding commentary, I embed the articles of the special issue “Transition from school into university mathematics: experiences across educational contexts” into the current landscape of research on secondary–tertiary transition, and discuss the advancement they made related to the synthesis published in 2008 by Gueudet. My aim is to elaborate a new synthesis across the topics of affect and the use of sociocultural perspectives that have framed the work of all contributions. For that, I focus on four major themes. First, I consider the complex relationship between affect and socio-cultural dimensions in the papers, which raises the need for theory networking in further research clarifying mutual roles of the two dimensions. Second, international diversity is only partially expressed in the collection of papers, thus should be a major topic of research in future that would provide a more comprehensive view on the transition from school to university mathematics. I thirdly discuss how the collection of papers deepens our understanding of the complexity and diversity related to the students’ experience with the secondary–tertiary transition and its potential impact for teaching. Finally, I propose and justify the need for systematic design and evaluation of interventions targeting a change in students’ affect related to the transition. In sum, the wide range of the significant findings in this special issue and their mutual relations add new perspectives to the research on secondary–tertiary transition and evidence a new spectrum of research directions.

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Notes

  1. This survey has been organized by the educational committee of the European Mathematical Society.

  2. Research in Undergraduate Mathematics Education, http://sigmaa.maa.org/rume/Site/News.html

  3. See in particular the “Joint statement to reduce reviewer bias” https://mathematicseducationjournals.com/

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Acknowledgements

I warmly thank Angelika Bikner-Ahsbahs and Vilma Mesa, whose advice and constructive criticism on previous versions played an essential role in the writing of this article.

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  1. University Paris-Saclay, Etudes sur les sciences et les techniques, 91400, Orsay, France

    Ghislaine Gueudet

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Gueudet, G. New insights about the secondary–tertiary transition in mathematics. Educ Stud Math 113, 165–179 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10649-023-10223-2

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