Search the digital library catalog

Abstract: This study examines the effects of COVID-19-related measures on the mathematics achievement of university students in social sciences in Slovenia. Our particular concern was to compare two student populations (pre-pandemic and pandemic) in terms of factors affecting student performance in mathematics courses. Data were collected over nine consecutive academic years (from 2013–2014 to 2020–2021) and analyzed using two-stage structural equation modelling (SEM). The analyses confirmed that the conceptual model developed before the pandemic was applicable during the pandemic period. For both populations (pre-pandemic and pandemic), mathematics confidence, perceived level of math anxiety, background knowledge from secondary school, and self-engagement in mathematics courses at university were confirmed as factors influencing mathematics achievement. Moreover, both populations perceived the effects of the factors in the same way, and the magnitude of the effects is comparable. The rather high values of determination coefficient for mathematics achievement (greater than 0.66 for both student populations) indicate that the variables “Perceived Level of Math Anxiety” and “Self-Engagement in Mathematics Course at University” together explain a significant proportion of the total variance before and during the pandemic. Consequently, the results of our case study indicated that pandemic measures did not have a significant impact on our students’ mathematics achievement. Although a more in-depth study of a broader sample of academic courses would be needed to confirm our findings, our experience indicates that mathematics courses at the tertiary level of education can be successfully delivered online.
Keywords: COVID-19, mathematics achievement, university students, social sciences, pre-pandemic population, pandemic population, comparison, multi-group structural equation modeling (MG-SEM)
Published in DKUM: 09.07.2024; Views: 112; Downloads: 9
Full text (1,64 MB)
This document has many files! More...

Abstract: The booklet contains the abstracts of the talks given at the 22th Hereditarnia Workshop on Graph Properties that was held at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in Maribor on 21st and 22nd of June, 2019. The workshop attracted 22 participants from 8 countries. All of the participants are researchers in di˙erent areas of graph theory, but at this event they all presented topics connected with (hereditary) graph properties. Themes of the talks encompass a wide range of contemporary graph theory research, notably, various types of graph colorings, graph domination, some graph dimensions matchings and graph products. Beside the abstracts of the plenary speaker (Roman Sotak) and three invited speakers (Tanja Gologranc, Michael A. Henning and Ismael G. Yero), the booklet also contains the abstracts of 7 contributed talks given at the event.
Keywords: mathematics, graph theory, Hereditarnia, Maribor, Slovenia
Published in DKUM: 13.12.2019; Views: 1350; Downloads: 339
Full text (1,08 MB)
This document has many files! More...

Abstract: Nowadays, we are facing a large number of varied educational projects which aim to direct and modernize mathematics education. Many institutions (from university bodies and institutes to individual secondary and elementary schools, networks of schools and private enterprises) make an appearance on the project market and contribute their ideas. Such quantity can cause confusion among teachers. Encouraged by the article, a mathematician's lament, by Paul Lockhard, we present some simple principles for classroom work that, in our opinion, would enhance the efficiency of mathematics classes in the long term. Thus we try to help mathematics teachers build a strategy for a fruitful approach to the ideas, recommendations and advertisements on the educational market. Showing the respect towards the quality mathematics teachers and avoiding discouraging and confusing them are some of the leading ideas that we should pursue in our attempt to improve mathematics education. At the end, we also offer some recommendations about the teacher training system.
Keywords: education, mathematics education, pedagogical approach, ICT
Published in DKUM: 15.12.2017; Views: 1314; Downloads: 110
Full text (1,24 MB)
This document has many files! More...

Abstract: The booklet contains the abstracts of the talks given at the 30th Ljubljana-Leoben Graph Theory Seminar that was held at the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics in Maribor between 13-15 September, 2017. The seminar attracted more than 30 participants from eight countries, all of which are researchers in different areas of graph theory. The topics of the talks encompass a wide range of contemporary graph theory research, notably, various types of graph colorings (b-coloring, packing coloring, edge colorings), graph domination (rainbow domination, Grundy domination, graph security), distinguishing problems, algebraic graph theory, graph algorithms, chemical graph theory, coverings, matchings and also some classical extremal problems. Beside the abstracts of the four invited speakers (Csilla Bujtás, Premysl Holub, Jakub Przybyło, Zsolt Tuza), the booklet contains also the abstracts of 18 contributed talks given at the event.
Keywords: mathematics, discrete mathematics, graph theory, Ljubljana-Leoben seminar, Maribor, Slovenia
Published in DKUM: 08.12.2017; Views: 1625; Downloads: 214
Full text (457,62 KB)
This document has many files! More...

Abstract: Recently Nikolić, Trinajstić and Randić put forward a novel modification ▫$^mW(G)$▫ of the Wiener number ▫$W(G)$▫, called modified Wiener index, which definition was generalized later by Gutman and the present authors. Here we study another class of modified indices defined as ▫$W_{min,λ}(G) = ∑(V(G)^λm_G(u,ν)^λ−m_G(u,ν)^{2λ})$▫ and show that some of the important properties of ▫$W(G)$▫, ▫$^mW(G)$▫ and ▫$^λW(G)$▫ are also properties of ▫$W_{min,λ}(G)$▫, valid for most values of the parameter λ. In particular, if ▫$T_n$▫ is any n-vertex tree, different from the n-vertex path ▫$P_n$▫ and the n-vertex star ▫$S_n$▫, then for any λ ≥ 1 or λ < 0, ▫$^W_{min,λ}(P_n) > W_{min,λ}(T_n)>W_{min,λ}(S_n)$▫. Thus for these values of the parameter λ, ▫$W_{min,λ}(G)$▫ provides a novel class of structure-descriptors, suitable for modeling branching-dependent properties of organic compounds, applicable in QSPR and QSAR studies. We also demonstrate that if trees are ordered with regard to ▫$W_{min,λ}(G)$▫ then, in the general case, this ordering is different for different λ.
Keywords: mathematics, chemical graph theory, Wiener index, modified Wiener index
Published in DKUM: 17.08.2017; Views: 1227; Downloads: 124
Full text (991,46 KB)
This document has many files! More...