We examine the measurement of many pedagogical and learning components of students' transition into Higher Education, drawing on our projects of transition to mathematically challenging courses in UK Higher Education and an extension of this work in Norway. We highlight alienation and engagement experiences because we think they can provide a more comprehensive understanding of what students are learning. Our research is based on long-term surveys of students starting various programs at universities in the UK (N = 1778) and Norway (N = 721). The Rasch measurement framework is used for validation, which revealed issues in establishing measurement invariance. Subsequently, a cross-sectional study of the two datasets showed recurring trends in the alienation from mathematics process as well as some systemic mechanisms that may mitigate it.

Attitudes in mathematics Distancing Teaching with transmissionalismRasch evaluation