This article addresses the possibility of differing approaches to teaching college students and primary school students. A quote from the article:

“With the college students I teach, it’s a straightforward transaction. They’re paying me to teach them math, and my job is to cajole or incentivize them into doing the work that’s necessary to learn the subject, whether they feel like it or not.”

With his own young children he “coaches” by framing math questions in a game context. Perhaps that approach has some limited applicability in a college classroom setting.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/07/25/opinion/dont-teach-math-coach-it.html?_r=0&referrer=