Könnunarpróf nýnema í stærðfræði við Háskóla Íslands. (Icelandic)
In: Icelandic Journal of Education / Uppeldi og Menntun, 2013-04-01, S. 11-28
academicJournal
Zugriff:
The dropout and failure rates in the first courses in calculus in the School of Engineering and Natural Sciences (SENS) at the University of Iceland are of great concern. In recent years, only about one-third of students who started a calculus course completed it. For example, of 721 students who started calculus courses in fall 2011, 37% completed a course, 17% did not pass a final exam and 46% stopped before the semester ended. To investigate this, a status exam for freshmen in SENS was conducted in the second week of fall semester 2011. The goal was to test whether and to what extent the students met SENS standards in mathematics. The students were also asked about their background, such as gender, which secondary school they attended, year of graduation from secondary school, year of the last math course they took and number of semesters studying math. The status exam was shown to mathematics instructors in secondary schools who agreed that it was representative of what their students learn. Four calculus courses are taught in SENS: a theoretical course for math and physics students, a slightly more applied version for engineering students and two practical courses for students of other subjects in SENS. 80% of the students in the course for math and physics students were male and around 70% of the students in the course for engineering students were also male. The gender proportions in the other two courses were more equal. Performance on the status exam was poor. Not even half of the students gave the right answer to 50% of the problems on the exam (median 44%). The problems on the exam covered numbers and functions, basic algebra, equation of a straight line, trigonometry, differentiation and integration, vectors and complex numbers. Performance was poorest on the problems testing knowledge in basic algebra, trigonometry, differentiation and integration. There was a great difference in performance of students from school to school. However, it should be noted that the authors are not trying to evaluate the quality of teaching in schools: that would only be possible if data were available about the ability of the students before they enrolled in secondary school. The data also show average performance decreasing with the time since students last took a math course in secondary school and increasing with the number of semesters in math courses. Analysis of variance was used to examine which factors were associated with performance on the status exam in a significant manner. Parameters were estimated in a model containing the factors secondary school, year of graduation from secondary school, year of last math course, number of semesters in mathematics, SENS calculus course, study program in the university and gender. Factors that were not significant were removed one by one, ending up with a model including secondary school, year of last math course, number of semesters in math and SENS calculus course. To further investigate the predictive value of the test, the authors decided to look at the proportion of engineering students finishing a second semester course in calculus. The result was that 73.9% of those who finished the second calculus course passed the status exam while 74.1% of those who did not finish the second calculus course did not pass the status exam. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Brottfall svo og hlutfall nemenda sem ekki ná viðunandi árangri í fyrstu námskeiðum í stærðfræðigreiningu á Verkfræði- og náttúruvísindasviði Háskóla Íslands er áhyggjuefni. Undanfarin ár hefur aðeins um þriðjungur nemenda sem skrá sig í námskeiðin lokið þeim. Til að kanna undirbúning nemenda og að hvaða marki nemendur uppfylla hæfniviðmið sviðsins var könnunarpróf í stærðfræði lagt fyrir nýnema Verkfræði- og náttúruvísindasviðs í annarri kennsluviku haustmisseris 2011. Árangur nemenda á könnunarprófinu var almennt slakur og náði innan við helmingur nemenda 50% árangri á prófinu. Nemendum gekk verst með námsþættina algebra, hornaföll og diffrun og heildun. Fervikagreining var notuð til að kanna hvaða breytur tengjast árangri. Prófað var líkan sem innihélt breyturnar framhaldsskóli, hvaða ár nemendur luku stúdentsprófi, hvenær þeir voru síðast í stærðfræði, hversu margar annir þeir höfðu verið í stærðfræði, námskeið, námsleið í Háskóla Íslands og kyn. Tengsl voru milli árangurs á könnunarprófinu og breytanna framhaldsskóli, síðast í stærðfræði, annir í stærðfræði og námskeið. Til að kanna forspárgildi könnunarprófsins var einnig kannað hversu hátt hlutfall verkfræðinema sem þreyttu könnunarprófið lauk framhaldsnámskeiði í stærðfræðigreiningu, Stærðfræðigreiningu IIB. Niðurstaðan var sú að 73,9% af þeim sem luku Stærðfræðigreiningu IIB náðu könnunarprófinu og 74,1% af þeim sem ekki luku við námskeiðið stóðust ekki könnunarprófið. Könnunarprófið virðist því hafa forspárgildi um árangur nemenda í framhaldsnámskeiði í stærðfræðigreiningu. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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Titel: |
Könnunarpróf nýnema í stærðfræði við Háskóla Íslands. (Icelandic)
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Autor/in / Beteiligte Person: | Jónsdóttir, Anna Helga ; Hreinsdóttir, Freyja ; Geirsdóttir, Guðrún ; Möller, Rögnvaldur G. ; Stefánsson, Gunnar |
Zeitschrift: | Icelandic Journal of Education / Uppeldi og Menntun, 2013-04-01, S. 11-28 |
Veröffentlichung: | 2013 |
Medientyp: | academicJournal |
ISSN: | 1022-4629 (print) |
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