An Activity Theory approach in explaining engineering students’ difficulties with university mathematics

  1. Anastasakis, Marinos 12
  2. Trujillo-González, Rodrigo 3
  3. García-Alonso, Israel 3
  4. Zakynthinaki, Maria 4
  5. Petridis, Konstantinos 45
  1. 1 Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics, University Crete, Heraklion, Greece
  2. 2 Institute of Applied and Computational Mathematics, Foundation for Research and Technology - Hellas (FORTH), Heraklion, Greece
  3. 3 Universidad de La Laguna
    info

    Universidad de La Laguna

    San Cristobal de La Laguna, España

    ROR https://ror.org/01r9z8p25

  4. 4 Department of Electronic Engineering, Hellenic Mediterranean University, Chania, Greece
  5. 5 Institute of Emerging Technologies (I-EMERGE), Hellenic Mediterranean University Research Centre (HMURC), Heraklion, Greece
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Revista:
International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology

ISSN: 0020-739X,  1464-5211

Año de publicación: 2020

Páginas: 1-17

Tipo: Artículo

DOI: 10.1080/0020739X.2020.1834156 GOOGLE SCHOLAR

Otras publicaciones en: International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology

Resumen

In this paper we explore the difficulties engineering undergraduates encounter with tertiary mathematics. Results from our survey (N = 71) show that students in our sample face issues mostly related to the challenging nature of university mathematics, the absence of worked examples during lectures and the discontinuity of school and university mathematics curricula. By using third generation Activity Theory, we were able to interpret the identified difficulties as contradictions emerging between the school and university activity systems as well as within the university activity system, and we argue that these difficulties can be treated as stemming from the structural characteristics the two activity systems have.

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