Evaluating the impact of mathematics support using moderation

Mathematics and Statistics Support has existed formally within Irish higher education for twenty years. Evaluations of the effectiveness of engaging with such student support suggest improvements in students’ grades, confidence, retention, progression, completion and employability, among other factors. Distinguishing student success due to mathematics support engagement from students’ other practices and use of academic resources such as lectures, tutorials, peer support and online materials is difficult. In this paper we present findings from a quantitative and longitudinal analysis of visitors and non-visitors of the UCD mathematics support centre over six years. We employed a technique from social psychology research literature known as moderation to address two research questions relating to the university mathematics module grades of students who use, and do not use the institution’s mathematics support centre. Moderation analysis revealed that visiting the centre more often has a significant impact on the relationship between Leaving Certificate mathematics grades and university mathematics grades. Findings indicated that using mathematics support bridges the gap between lower and higher achieving Leaving Certificate mathematics students in terms of their university mathematics results.