ITeME

 

ITeME (Investigations in Tertiary Mathematics Education) is a developing research unit in the Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics at the University of Cape Town. The unit brings together researchers interested in how students learn, experience, and progress through university mathematics, and in how teaching, curriculum, assessment, and support can be designed more effectively and equitably. While grounded in the South African higher education context, ITeME also aims to contribute to wider conversations in tertiary mathematics education.

 

The unit’s research agenda focuses on transitions into and through undergraduate mathematics; students’ mathematical practices, reasoning, participation, and identity development; and the curriculum, assessment, support, and professional learning structures that shape success in university mathematics. Its work spans a range of contexts, including mainstream first-year courses, extended curriculum spaces, support interventions, and selected later mathematics-intensive courses. In this way, ITeME seeks to generate a coherent body of research that speaks to both student experience and institutional design.

 

ITeME also aims to build a strong postgraduate and collaborative research community in tertiary mathematics education. Through seminars, research forums, supervision, and joint projects, the unit supports emerging and established researchers working on questions related to undergraduate mathematics teaching and learning. Its broader goal is to produce rigorous, research-informed knowledge that can strengthen practice, deepen understanding, and support more equitable participation and success in university mathematics.

Prospective postgraduate students, researchers, and collaborators who are interested in joining ITeME, contributing to its research agenda, or learning more about its work are warmly invited to get in touch. If you would like more information about the unit, potential postgraduate opportunities, or possibilities for collaboration, please email Dr Mashudu Mokhithi at mashudu.mokhithi@uct.ac.za

 

 

Mokhithi, M., & Campbell, A. L. (2026). Early Gains, Fading Effects: A Quasi-Experimental Evaluation of Mathematical Thinking Workshops for the School-to-University Mathematics Transition in South Africa. Education Sciences, 16(3), 378. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci16030378

 

Mokhithi, M., Campbell, A., Shock, J., & Padayachee, P. (2026). From Theory to Practice, and Back: Student Evidence Testing ZPD, APOS, CLT, and Constructivism in Mathematical Thinking Workshops. Education Sciences, 16(3), 385. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci16030385

 

Mokhithi, M., Campbell, A. L., Shock, J. P., & Padayachee, P. (2025). ‘I call it math therapy’: student narratives of growth, belonging and confidence in mathematical thinking workshops. International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology, 56(12), 2353–2378. https://doi.org/10.1080/0020739X.2025.2564193