Exploring the question of what the focus should be when embedding Graduate Attributes in a mathematics university curriculum

1. Embedding UWC Graduate
attributes into HE Mathematics
courses: possibilities and tensions
20 May 2014
Teaching & Learning workshop
Mathematics department
Rita Kizito

2. Exploratory Questions (10 minutes)
1. What is the BSc (with Mathematics) or BSc
(Mathematics & Statistical Sciences) degree
for?
2. What are the values that underpin
mathematics at UWC?
• What are the key skills that an undergraduate student will
need in order to succeed in mathematics?
• What is it that you expect a mathematics graduate to be
able to do at the end of the module /programme?

3. What is the BSc degree for?
• From the UWC website :The department of Mathematics
offers programs for Undergraduate and Post-graduate
degrees. We have established programs of fundamental
research in mathematics, as well as research in various
areas such as Mathematical Modeling, Financial
Mathematics and Mathematics Education among others.
Our graduates are employed in Banking, the IT industry,
Insurance, Forestry, in Government Departments and as
academics.
• Students rank employability as the key factor for studying
a degree or choosing mathematics as a subject.

4. Values that underpin mathematics
teaching and learning
Mathematics communities are usually divided
along two lines:
• ‘pure’ – the pursuit of rigorous mathematical
theory, or
• ‘applied’ – the modelling of real world
phenomenon through mathematics
• Values are also related to issues of
institutional identity
(Barrie Cooper, 2013)

5. Workshop structure
1. Why GAs?
2. The UWC Charter of Graduate Attributes
3. Activity - embedding one GA into your
module
4. Way forward

6. Why GAs?
1. Course specific skills - to help students become
more effective students, raising their levels of
engagement and achievement in mathematics.
2. Graduate employability - necessitating HEIs to
work closely with employers to produce
graduates with skills required to drive the future
economy.
* Mentioned tacitly in SAQA document on level descriptors
(Handout #1)

7. What are Graduate Attributes?
“The qualities, skills and understandings a
university community agrees its students
should develop during their time with the
institution. These attributes include but go
beyond the disciplinary expertise or technical
knowledge that has traditionally formed the
core of most university courses. They are
qualities that prepare graduates as agents of
social good in an unknown future”
(Bowden et al., 2000 p. 3)

8. Classification of GAs – key areas
Work based learning (WBL) and work
integrated learning (WIL)
Work experience or work placements
( Research assistants, Teaching Assistants,
Tutors, Peer mentors)
Reflection and action planning,
Personal Development planning
(PDP)
Students reflect on an identify own
strengths and weaknesses, together with a
strategy for improvement , setting and
achieving personal goals (portfolio
development, blogs)
Career management skills (CMS),
usually run by university career
services
CV writing, sourcing job opportunities,
career fairs, attending open days,
preparation for “a would-be researcher” by
conducting research and developing oral &
written presentations, posters etc.
*Employability skills going beyond
the content
Communication, teamwork, leadership,
problem solving, logical argument, digital
literacy (IT skills)

9. The UWC Charter of Graduate
Attributes (consult document)
Tier 1
(Generic attributes)
• Scholarship - a critical
attitude towards
knowledge
• Critical citizenship and
the social good - a
relationship and
interaction with local and
global communities and
the environment
• Lifelong learning - an
attitude and stance
towards themselves
Tier 2
( Personal skills & abilities)
• Inquiry focused and
knowledgeable
• Critically and relevantly
literate
• Autonomous and
collaborative
• Ethically, environmentally
and socially aware and
active
• Skilled communicators
• Interpersonal flexibility
and confidence to engage
across difference

10. The UWC Charter of Graduate
Attributes
Tier 2
• Inquiry focused and knowledgeable
• Critically and relevantly literate
• Autonomous and collaborative
• Ethically, environmentally and socially
aware and active
• Skilled communicators
• Interpersonal flexibility and confidence to engage
across difference
Tier 1 “Complex
interwoven aspects of
human ability”
(Barrie, 2004)

11. Common tensions
• Philosophical – a wish to retain the pure ,
theoretical nature of the subject
• Practical difficulty of finding a space for GA
development in an already crowded
curriculum
* We are now training students for unknown
futures in roles that are yet to be invented.

12. How does one embed/integrate GAs?
• A holistic (programmatic ) approach where a skills
development map /matrix is used to ensure that
there is a coherent strategy for
embedding/integrating GAs across the programme.
• A modular approach where each academic is
responsible for embedding /integrating GAs in their
own courses.
 The GAs can be delivered as ‘stand alone’
sections in the modules or as ‘complete
modules’.
 They can be integrated with the learning
outcome statements or have their own
outcomes.

13. Skill Development Map for BSc Mathematics ( Year 1)
Discipline specific skills
Module [ I - Introduced, P - Practiced , A – assessed] MAT105 APM111 APM121
Introduction to Latex I P A I P A
Proof I I
??
Transferable skills ( tier 2) (outcomes)
Inquiry focused and
knowledgeable
ability to carry out inquiry-based learning, problem
solver, conduct research, project design and
implementation
P P P
Critically and relevantly literate ability to critically evaluate literature, develop library
skills
P P P
Autonomous and collaborative develop skills of independence of thought and social
interaction through teamwork, time management,
cooperative learning, group work etc.
Ethically, environmentally and
socially aware
develop awareness of ethical and environmental
issues and their impact on society
Skilled communicators become an effective communicator and presenter,
able to interact appropriately ( with oral, written,
presentation skills), and technologically (digitally and
information literate).
P A P A P A
Interpersonal difference and
confidence to engage across
difference
ability to apply UWC Graduate attributes to a range of
life experiences to facilitate life-long learning

14. Activity ( 15 minutes)
• Using the Charter of Graduate attributes choose one
attribute and develop a teaching activity aimed at
developing it.
• The activity should include learning outcomes (or be
associated with already existing learning outcomes),
relevant content and an assessment task.
• Share your activity with a colleague , explaining how
each of the above components will lead to the
development of the attribute you have choses. Use
the feedback you receive to refine and develop your
activity ( see examples handouts #3 & 4).

15. Way forward

16. Barrie , S (2004). A research-based approach to generic
graduate attributes policy. Higher Education Research & Development
Vol. 23, No. 3, August 2004
Bowden, J., Hart, G., King, B., Trigwell, K., & Watts, O. (2000). Generic
capabilities of ATN university graduates. Canberra: Australian
Government Department of Education, Training and Youth Affairs.
Available at http:/www.clt.uts.edu.au/atn.grad.cap.project.index.html
Cooper , B ( 2013). Reviewing the mathematics curriculum in a changing
HE environment. Inspiring Academic Practice
https://education.exeter.ac.uk/ojs/index.php/inspire/article/view/13