Predictors of performance in engineering mathematics

Abstract

International audienceMathematics in university courses was identified as a main obstacle for engineering students in the beginning of their study. Since difficulties with mathematics could lead to a dropout, our research aims to analyse students' profiles referring to individual characteristics that allow identifying possible risks for students' achievement or success in the first year of study. As a first step to identify possibly risky profiles, we started to find possible predictors of students' performance. For this, we give a short overview of the research state and our derived research interest. We discuss theoretical constructs that are possibly crucial characteristics of students with respect to encountering mathematics as an obstacle. Further, we describe the method for measuring different variables of 182 engineering students. Finally, we present results referring to predictors of performance in engineering mathematics and discuss further steps of our research