Mathematical Skills in Undergraduate Students. A Ten-year Survey of a Plant Physiology Course

Abstract

In the health and life sciences, as well as in other scientific disciplines, problem solving depends on mathematical skills. However, significant deficiencies are commonly found in this regard in undergraduate students. In an attempt to understand the underlying causes and to improve students' performance, this

Mathematical literacy in Plant Physiology undergraduates: results of interventions aimed at improving students' performance

“…It has been suggested that an increase in the percentage of mathematical questions left unanswered in examinations may be due to low self-efficacy of the students [7]. The results obtained for the online tests in the present work confirm this suggestion.…”

“…LeBard et al [6] indicated that students experience difficulties in transforming their mathematical training into a form that allows them to use it effectively. Low scores for questions that require the application of mathematical skills in undergraduate students of Plant Physiology have also been reported [7] and, additionally despite the number of mathematical questions in the examinations being low, the students' performance in such questions was a good predictor of the final grade, as also shown by Mulhern et al [8] for Psychology undergraduates.…”

“…At the academic level, we found in a previous study that the average score in the subject Plant Physiology for questions that require mathematical skills for resolution are a good predictor of the students' final grades, though such issues only represent less than 15% of the questions in the examinations [7]. A more extended and detailed study of these results are presented in this paper, showing that there is a highly significant correlation between the scores obtained by the students individually for both types of questions, in all and each of the 11 academic years analysed ( Table 2).…”

“…The percentage of blank responses to this type of question is similar in both the examinations and the online tests (26%). Since mathematical numeracy required for solving these questions is not subject specific and only needs basic mathematical skills that students have already acquired (see examples in [7]), this data indicates that students do not make the effort to complete the task. Due to the conditions under which the online tests were conducted, Mathematics anxiety should not be a factor significantly influencing the results.…”

“…In a previous survey, we detected deficiencies in mathematical skills in Biology undergraduates and showed that the average scores obtained for the mathematical questions in the examinations of Plant Physiology varied in parallel with the percentage of successful students [7]. Since the previous study considered the average scores for all students of the same academic year, we have performed a more detailed study through Thus, in this work we tested the hypothesis that the direct relationship previously found between the average scores obtained for the mathematical questions and the final grades held at the individual level.…”