An Intervention Based on Identifying Topics That Students Have Difficulties with

Abstract

Students who start university coming from secondary school commit some common conceptual errors. This paper presents a study developed in the subject of Numerical Methods taught in the second term of the Industrial Engineering Degrees of Oviedo University (Spain). The study was comprised of several activities, with two main objectives. Firstly, detecting over time the main deficiencies in mathematical knowledge presented by students in the first year of their university degrees and secondly, overcoming these shortcomings. The activities carried out involved preparing teaching materials to be uploaded to a shared folder and made available to the students of the subject, the preparation of a questionnaire and the performance of a task group by the students and then giving them feedback about the shortcomings identified. These activities have been well-received by the students and the results obtained have been positive. Our intention, for later courses, is to continue developing this work with some supplementary activities.

Keywords

• conceptual errors in mathematics
• secondary education
• first year university students