Dominio afectivo de las matemáticas en grados en ingeniería y en grados en educación

Abstract

The general objective of the doctoral thesis titled "Affective domain of mathematics in engineering degrees and in education degrees" is: "to analyse whether there are mean differences in attitudes towards mathematics and in affectivity towards making mistakes according to the degree". In order to conduct a cross-sectional study on the affective domain of mathematics in students from different areas of knowledge, authorisation was requested from the Research Ethics Committee of the University of Murcia (ID: 4238/2022). The participants in the study were 470 undergraduate students, of whom 245 were from education-related degrees, representing 52.1% of the total number of participants, and 225 were from engineering-related degrees, representing 47.9% of the total number of participants. Among them, 229 identified with the male gender and 241 with the female gender, representing 48.7% and 51.3%, respectively. All of them belonged to universities located in southeastern Spain. Participants were administered two questionnaires. On the one hand, the questionnaire of attitudes towards mathematics by Auzmendi, and on the other, the questionnaire to measure affectivity towards error in mathematics by Ibarra-González and Eccius-Wellmann. Both were evaluated according to a Likert-type scale 1-5. The statistical study consisted of the analysis of the means in each of the factors studied in both scales. SPSS software version 28.0 was used for this purpose. The results obtained show that, when studying attitudes towards mathematics, there are statistically significant differences between participants from engineering degrees and students from education degrees in all the factors studied: "usefulness", "anxiety", "confidence", " pleasure" and "motivation". On the other hand, regarding the affective dimension towards making mistakes in mathematics, statistically significant differences were found in the factors "negative emotions and affect", "misconception of mistakes" and "negative beliefs and emotions", while they were not found for "favourable behaviours towards mistakes" and "beliefs in learning from mistakes". The results highlight the need to focus on the affective domain of mathematics, as the results show how the different ways of perceiving and dealing with mathematics in both areas of knowledge, which undoubtedly affect mathematics and its teaching and learning processes, are influenced by this emotional component that can have positive effects, but also negative effects if certain aspects are not treated or if certain attitudes and beliefs that hinder mathematical learning are not corrected. This is the case of anxiety towards mathematics, present in students of both degrees to a greater or lesser extent, and which causes undesirable emotional states in students, as it does not provide a suitable environment for learning, as occurs with lack of confidence, or motivation, among others. Another very relevant aspect is the way in which errors are dealt with because, depending on how the student perceives them, they can be an ally in the teaching process or an obstacle. If error is understood as an element of the learning process, which gives us the opportunity to learn from it and to be able to investigate more deeply in the teaching processes, it will be another tool that the teacher can use. For all these reasons, a correct design of teaching and learning procedures that have an impact on the affective domain of students will favour the work of teachers and students.