Mathematics Support for Students on Vocational Courses

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Mathematics Support for Students on Vocational
Courses

• By Susan Starkings
• London South Bank University

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The Skills Unit Team

• Manager - Susan Starkings
• Academic Staff - Catherine Boyle
• - Plus 50-70 HPLs
• - IT Library academic staff
• Administrators - Ahmed Mohamed (F/T)
• - Dhurium Kurcuku (P/T)

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Responsibilities

• Manage the Academic Admin staff, conduct
  appraisals, recruitment of new staff etc.
  
• Develop new innovative ways of providing
  service to LSBU students
  
• Manage budgets of p/t teaching hours and
  operational budget of Pre-Study English course
  
• Organise programmes of support for students
• Manage quality assurance
• Ensure that the unit complies with QAA
  requirements, HEFCE guidelines
  

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Responsibilities

• Training and mentoring of academic support
  staff
  
• Scholarship research
• Teaching/academic/professional activities
• Updating academic knowledge education
  initiatives
  
• Be active in LSBU central processes e.g.
  validations
  
• and projects ( e.g. Change Academy Project)
• Develop teaching materials

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SWOT Strengths of the Skills Unit

• Established unit within LDC LSBU (since 1998)
  and grown significantly since then.
  
• Service 1998 2004-05
• Fast Track U/G 06-80 350
• Fast Track P/G - 65
• Fast Track Clearing - New Course
• Pre-Study English - 100
• Moving On - 98
• Maths for Social Workers 25
• Foundation 40 61
• Maths Support 238 975
• Study Skills 342 1533
• English - 3577

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Strengths of the Skills Unit (cont)

• Experienced Academic staff with expertise in
  Maths, Statistics, English, Study Skills
  Communications IT
  
• Classes/support provided at Essex Southwark
  campuses
  
• Student centred teaching
• Run a good informal staff development programme
• Teaching resources on web and in teaching room

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SWOT Weaknesses of Skills Unit

• Lack of office space in Caxton House
• Room usage for support classes - shared
• Limited access for disabled students
• Lack of IT equipment in teaching rooms
• Turn over of staff
• Training mentoring takes up a lot of time

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SWOT - Opportunities

• Widening Participation agenda just keeps growing
• Increase usage levels by students
• Greater/closer working with the IT/Library staff

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SWOT - Threats

• Faculties wanting to do their own thing
• Academic Staff moving to other institutions or
  LSBU faculties

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PGCE/ITT Questions

• Number of marks available
• Mental arithmetic 12 marks (12mins)
• Interpreting and using statistical information
  7marks
  
• Using and applying general arithmetic 9 marks
• Test is timed 48 minutes. 36 minutes for the 16
  longer questions.
  
• The total marks 28 and the pass mark is 60 i.e.
  candidates must get at least 17 marks to pass.
  
• For the numeracy test an on-screen calculator is
  available for use on all questions except the
  mental arithmetic section.

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Example Mental Arithmetic Questions

• 1. The entrance fee for an exhibition is three
  pounds seventy five. What will be the total
  entrance fee for a school party of 50 pupils?
  
• 2. Two-fifths of a class of twenty-five pupils
  were girls. What percentage were boys?
  
• 3. All 300 Year 11 pupils in a school took GCSE
  English. The number of pupils gaining grade C or
  above increased from 85 in the mock exam to 93
  in the actual exam. How many more pupils gained
  grade C or above in the actual exam than in the
  mock exam?

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Example Longer Questions
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Numeracy Test Questions

• Using the information given, indicate which of
  the following are true 
  
•  a quarter of the pupils achieved a result of at
  least 50 in both the practical and theory
  components
  
• half of the pupils achieved a result of at least
  50 in the practical component
  
• the two pupils with the lowest marks in the
  practical component also had the lowest marks in
  the theory component
  
• Answer....................

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Example Business Studies

• Increasing by a Percentage
• Suppose we want to increase 200 by 10
• We get 10 of 200 (the increase) and add this to
  200.
  
• A quicker way is to multiply 200 by 1.2 i.e. 200
  x 1.2 240 but why 1.2? 20 as a fraction is
  0.2 so we want to increase the original number by
  a faction 0.2 i.e. we want the original number
  0.2 of the original number. This is altogether
  1.2 of the original number or the original number
  x 1.2.
• As a formula New value Old value (1
  increase/100)
  

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Example Nursing
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Maths for Social Workers

• The following are the expenditures for a
  department for 2004
  
• Monthly expenditure for 2004
• Month
• Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug
  Sep Oct Nov Dec
  
• Amount()
• 227 254 212 227 220 236 254 234
  543 545 550 652
  
• Display this information graphically
• What is the average expenditure for the year?
• Comment on the years expenditure for this
  department and its possible future expenditure.
  
• ( 10 marks)

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Maths for Social Workers

• As a social worker you will be expected to
  complete expenses clams. During December you
  incurred the following expenses, which you need
  to claim for
• Attendance at court incurred travelling 53 miles
  round trip.
  
• Train fare to Plymouth 64.
• Overnight accommodation in Plymouth cost 49.95.

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Maths for Social Workers

• Lunch in Plymouth cost 8.90
• General travelling to visit clients 247 miles.
• Mileage allowance is 32 pence per mile.
• What is the total cost of expenses for December
  that you will claim back?
  
• ( 6 marks)

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Summary

• Keep pool of staff able to teach at the level
  required (i.e. Pre-entry to Postgraduate)
  
• Administration Organisation increases as the
  service expands
  
• Running all year has holiday issues
• Funding
• Teaching materials
• Quotes I do appreciate what the tutors did for
  me
  
• The best aspect of the course was the amount of
  knowledge I have attained in such as short amount
  of time.
  

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Skills Unit

• Any Questions ?