An Activity Theory approach in explaining engineering students' difficulties with university mathematics
Fecha
2020Resumen
In this paper we explore the difficulties engineering undergraduates encounter with tertiary mathematics. Results from our survey (N = 71)showthatstudentsinoursamplefaceissuesmostlyrelated to the challenging nature of university mathematics, the absence of workedexamplesduringlecturesandthediscontinuityofschooland 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 systemsaswellaswithintheuniversityactivitysystem,andweargue that these difficulties can be treated as stemmingfromthestructural characteristics the two activity systems have.