Carencias de competencias matemáticas básicas en los alumnos de nuevo ingreso

Resumo

Recently, when assessing 1st-year students in mathematics courses, one can detect serious problems to acquire minimum level of competences. Since it is not possible to assure that this problem is due to either the contents considered in a 1st-year course or the way in which such contents are dealt with, we have performed an study about the mathematical basic competences in these students in order to determine their level of mathematical “literacy” in relation with the levels corresponding to the 3rd and 4th year of Secondary School. Regarding this, we planned a level questionnaire asking about the basic procedures which our students should competently apply to pass a 1st-year course. The questionnaire was filled in at the begining of the first semester and, as a control mechanism, a second questionnaire was distributed to measure the same competences and procedures. This was done so to detect a possible acquisition of competences after taking a mathematics course for a semester. In this study, we can observe how many of our students have not acquired the mathematical basic competences corresponding to the 3rd and 4th year of Secondary Education. This lack of competences involves serious difficulties to pass mathematics course in university.