First-Year Engineering Students’ Mathematical Skills And Perceptions Of Studying Mathematics

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to describe and analyse the backgrounds and attitudes of students participating in their first year of Bachelor’s degree studies in engineering in the Finnish education system regarding the study of mathematics, as well as the students' basic mathematical skills in 2023. The data used in the study has been collected from two Finnish universities. The data consists of Finnish and international students' answers to a mathematics basic skills test and their reactions to some statements about studying mathematics. International students' test scores were higher than Finnish students', especially in tasks related to differentiation and trigonometry. No significant difference was found between the answers of men and women. Both Finnish and international students felt that mathematics will be important to them in their working life, but this feeling was much stronger among the international students. Women are more likely than men to agree on a statement of having worked hard in their previous studies to learn mathematics