Inviting the Maths Learning Centre into classes
One way to help students engage with your course is to invite the Maths Learning Centre (MLC) into your classes. In Semester 1 2022, Dr Benjamin Madden did just that for the Arts course Approaches to Culture. Benjamin and MLC Coordinator Dr David Butler describe their experiences below.
Dr Benjamin Madden
Last year, the Faculty of Arts abolished its compulsory first year course for all students in favour of a list of “Core Competency” courses from which all students would be obliged to choose. Approaches to Culture was included on this list, prompting me to think about how it might best serve the larger agenda of preparing a diverse cohort of students for their studies in the humanities and social sciences, as well as the local objective of introducing them to the basics of cultural studies.
As an interdisciplinary node within Humananities and Social Sciences (HUMSS), cultural studies is well-positioned to serve that larger agenda: it borrows its methods from across the disciplinary spectrum, promiscuously invoking quantitative methods alongside semiotics alongside ethnography, and so on.
This kind of approach helps to illuminate the deep interdependence between conceptual thinking and empirical investigation. My aim is to help students become conversant in both.
David and Dr Nicholas Crouch (also from MCL) offered engaging sessions that gave students a practical acquaintance with some basic statistical methods, and carefully introduced them to key vocabulary. I have already found myself calling back to these sessions in subsequent classes, and anticipate that my students will have greater confidence engaging with quantitative research in future.
Students in the Maths Learning Centre
Dr David Butler
Just before Semester 1 started, Nicholas and I met with Benjamin at the MLC to talk about doing something in Approaches to Culture. Benjamin wanted us to help the students gain some confidence and trust with statistics, and make sure they knew what some of the terminology meant. He graciously answered all of our questions about the discipline of Cultural Studies and how his course runs, and agreed for us to take over the first hour of each tutorial in one week of Semester 1.
Some weeks later, after looking at the course reading Benjamin had sent us, I had an inspiration that our old Disney film dataset could help the students feel comfortable with seeing patterns in data, but it would need updating. I spent many hours researching the films, playing with the data in RStudio, creating sets of data cards both physical and virtual, and deciding on the activities the students should do to highlight the concepts.
With hours to spare, we were ready for the tutorials. Benjamin and Taylor Westmacott were excellent. They welcomed us warmly and let us get on with the activities, all the while supporting the students to engage, and to connect what we were doing to cultural studies concepts. It was a joy to meet new students and to watch them using their mathematical skills, and making meaningful connections to data.
Inviting the Maths Learning Centre into your class can be a positive experience for everyone involved.
If you would like to find out more about how the Maths Learning Centre can work with you in your classes, please contact David and he will be most happy to talk.