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The University of Notre Dame Australia

Series

2017

Australian Tertiary Admissions Ranking (ATAR)

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Exploring Reasons Why Australian Senior Secondary Students Do Not Enrol In Higher-Level Mathematics Courses, G Hine Jan 2017

Exploring Reasons Why Australian Senior Secondary Students Do Not Enrol In Higher-Level Mathematics Courses, G Hine

Education Conference Papers

In this research paper, I present the reasons why senior secondary students elect not to enrol in a higher mathematics course. All Year 11 and Year 12 mathematics students within Western Australian secondary schools were invited to participate in an online survey comprised chiefly of qualitative items. The key reasons espoused by students include an expressed dissatisfaction with mathematics, the opinion that there are other more viable courses of study to pursue, and that the Australian Tertiary Admissions Ranking (ATAR) can be maximised by taking a lower mathematics course. In addition, student testimony suggests that there are few incentives offered …