Simple steps to teach mathematics : a case analysis of a stage six mathematics student in a tutoring intervention

This chapter presents a case analysis of one Year 12 mathematics student (final year) who participated in a tutoring intervention in New South Wales, Australia. The purpose of this study was to explore the possibility of integrating some important aspects of different pedagogical approaches to the teaching mathematics in a tutoring context. It aimed to build a tutoring scheme called Simple Steps to help the student's understanding of difficult mathematics concepts. In building the scheme, links were made with existing research, with the tutor's teaching experience, and the relationship between different pedagogical approaches and their action on the learning process. It is argued that in a tutoring context although considerable dispute exists about direct instruction and discovery learning (Huitt, 2003; Kirschner, Sweller, & Clark, 2006), there is a need to combine them to build a practical scheme to help students' understanding of both mathematics concepts and procedures.