Approaches to learning mathematics through reading : Reading-to-learn
Briefly put, my belief is that amongst the many different approaches to the learning of mathematics which students may adopt, that of reading to learn maths can provide an invaluable alternative practical approach to the understanding and learning of mathematics. As such my area of research relates to supporting students in developing a

By 'self organised ability at reading-to-learn mathematics' I mean that students should develop a personally significant description of a viable meaning to the original text, based on the ever more refined and improved understanding they develop towards that text, and that they should be able to do so with awareness as to the techniques, strategies and other such processes they used in their activity of reading, as well as the way in which they made use of these, and otherwise organised their use of these in order to read-to-learn.

Given that students spend much more time away from lectures, tutorials, etc... than in them, great onus is placed on them at studying and learning independently. Consequently, part of their activities during their private study will involve reading from relevant mathematics textbooks, such as Linear Algebra, Analysis, Calculus, Statistics, Discrete Mathematics, Numerical Methods, etc...,

It is then the case that in reading such texts students will meet with three main modes of discourse :

• the mathematical English used to explain and describe the mathematics,
• the actual formal mathematical symbolism itself (used to present examples, theorems, proofs, etc...),
• and the mathematical diagrams used in supporting the descriptions and explanation of the concepts and processes of the mathematics.

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