I got to the mat and had the lowest pass rate in the country

mathematics

Student teachers at Agder University have the lowest failure rate in the country in the national partial examination in mathematics. The Vice-Rector refers to systematic and long-term work with the topic.

On the fall 2023 national math tests, nearly 3 in 10 elementary school teacher students failed.

Among those who would become teachers of the youngest pupils, grades 1-7, 29.2 percent of students failed. The situation is still better than fall 2023, when 40.6% of these students failed.

Poor results in mathematics among student teachers have caused concern over time. On the exam, students must demonstrate their ability to solve algebra problems and teach them to students. Historically, algebra has been a subject that Norwegian students struggle with, according to Nokot, who conducts the national partial tests on behalf of the Ministry of Education.

Best in the country

On the other hand, at the University of Agder (UiA), there was a happy atmosphere when the censorship of the fall semester national examination in mathematics for primary school teacher students from grades 1 to 7 became known before the weekend. The results were the best in the country, with a failure rate of just 11.3 percent.

At UiA, only student teachers in grades 1 to 7 took their exams this fall, a total of 80 students.

In the spring of 2023, the results were also good. Then there were student teachers in grades 5 through 10 who took the exam at the University of Iowa, and only 5 percent of them passed, compared to 20.6 percent nationally in this study program.

He praises the professional environment and students

UiA Vice-President of Education Hilde Entjør says they are very, very happy with the results.

– We are particularly pleased that the good results achieved in the spring of 2023 continue to hold up. It is only to praise the professional environment that has worked systematically and long-term to improve students' results in mathematics, among other things by developing active student learning forms and problem-solving methodology. There was also good cooperation between the two study programs for primary school teachers, GLU 1-7 and 5-10, says Intjör.

She goes on to say that UiA has been clear about algebraic reasoning, which many students struggle with.

The Vice-Chancellor will also pay tribute to the students who worked on mathematics and, among other things, made use of the drop-in centre, a low-key offering for students of different educations who want help with mathematics. Separate workshops are organized and the university has mentoring schemes where students help each other.

This was done under the auspices of MatRIC, a center for excellence in mathematics at the university.

“The students were good at making use of the structures alongside regular teaching,” says Intjör.

The second largest number of candidates

With 80 students, UiA had the second highest number of students sitting the national partial exam in mathematics in autumn 2023. Only Høgskulen på Vestlandet had more, with 191 student teachers in levels 1-7 in Bergen, Sogndal and Stord who sat in The national partial exam in mathematics in the fall of 2023. The exam, and here the failure rate reached 35.6 percent.

There were a total of 748 primary school teacher students in grades 1 to 7 and 5 to 10 in the country, and each of them took the national partial examination in mathematics at the end of November. 574 of them were students in primary school teaching levels 1-7 and 174 in levels 5-10.

The pass rate for the two different groups of student teachers was 29.3 percent for student teachers in grades 1-7 and 23 percent for students in grades 5-10.

A total of 208 students or 27.8 percent failed.