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    Nutrition students and mathematics: Competent but not confident

    Access Status
    Fulltext not available
    Authors
    Clark, Karin
    Cooke, Audrey
    James, Anthony
    Halse, Rhiannon
    Date
    2020
    Type
    Journal Article
    
    Metadata
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    Citation
    Clark, K. and Cooke, A. and James, A. and Halse, R. 2020. Nutrition students and mathematics: Competent but not confident. Focus on Health Professional Education. 21 (1): pp. 77-90.
    Source Title
    Focus on Health Professional Education
    Additional URLs
    https://fohpe.org/FoHPE/issue/view/17
    ISSN
    1442-1100
    Faculty
    Faculty of Health Sciences
    School
    School of Public Health
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/79067
    Collection
    • Curtin Research Publications
    Abstract

    Aim: To assess skills, competence and disposition of nutrition students towards mathematics. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted at Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia, to assess the numeracy of undergraduate nutrition students enrolled in a level 2 biochemistry unit (n = 40). Primary outcome measures were evaluations of competence when answering discipline-specific questions and students’ confidence and perceived ease and disposition towards mathematics. Results: The majority of students were competent (mean diagnostic test score = 72%), with only four students scoring below the competence midpoint. However, many students reported low confidence and a high perception of difficulty, indicated by the majority of scores above the line of equality in self-confidence and ease of questions. Furthermore, 30% of students identified as having anxiety related to mathematical understanding and mathematical knowledge below the midpoint. Conclusions: Results showed a significant proportion of students were not confident with mathematics, despite being competent. Anxiety concerning knowledge and understanding was present in 30% of students. These findings are important for tailoring a numeracy support framework that specifically addresses confidence and disposition towards mathematics to ensure that students can succeed in the mathematical challenges inherent to their course and future nutrition career.

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