The mathematical communication competency in the engineering degrees: a tool to assess the starting point

• Autores: Joaquín Castelló, Dolores Lerís, Vicente Martínez, María Luisa Sein-Echaluce Lacleta
• Localización: The International journal of engineering education, ISSN-e 0949-149X, Vol. 26, no. 6, 2010, págs. 1455-1463
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • In 2006, the authors of this article designed a survey to assess the mathematical profile of students beginning engineering degrees. Thestudy presented here is the result of the idea of validating part of the questionnaire as a tool for measuring skills in the use ofmathematical language. Thirteen questions have been considered, and the hypotheses tested were whether any questions were redundantand therefore could have been excluded, and whether correctly answering the questions classified beforehand as requiring a higher levelof knowledge was related to correctly answering questions at lower levels.The chi-square test was used to study the dependence of pairs of related items, and logistic regression was used to determine whetherthe results for some simple items conclusively explained the results in other more complex items. The study essentially confirmed thateleven of the thirteen questions are a useful instrument for measuring skills in communicating mathematical content among studentsbeginning an engineering degree.