Exploring the school-university mathematics skills gap for Economic Sciences
The training of highly skilled persons for the areas of Economics and Commerce requires that degree students upon entry need certain knowledge and skills in mathematics including aspects of statistics. The context is distance education and entry students seem unable to cope with the requirements of...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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University of the Free State
2021-06-01
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| Series: | Perspectives in Education |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://journals.ufs.ac.za/index.php/pie/article/view/4878 |
| _version_ | 1797265674347741184 |
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| author | Ilsa Basson Mardi Jankowitz |
| author_facet | Ilsa Basson Mardi Jankowitz |
| author_sort | Ilsa Basson |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description |
The training of highly skilled persons for the areas of Economics and Commerce requires that degree students upon entry need certain knowledge and skills in mathematics including aspects of statistics. The context is distance education and entry students seem unable to cope with the requirements of the mathematics-based topics that they need to study at the first year of tertiary education. It resulted in university staff speculating about a gap in pre-knowledge and skills. This study aims to investigate this phenomenon, starting with content and Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy analyses of final year school examination papers in mathematics, comparing it with similar analyses of first-year mathematics-based module examinations in the Economic sciences. Students that passed mathematics at school are supposed to have had adequate preparation for the first level Bachelor of Commerce. Coping with routine procedures mainly upon exit from secondary education does not signal well for the subsequent training of economists and commerce students. The situation seemingly does not improve at tertiary level where there is a further emphasis on routine procedures compared to higher order thinking skills.
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| first_indexed | 2024-03-08T04:41:57Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-7fdd812448fc4577a53576bb990f110c |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 0258-2236 2519-593X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-25T00:48:33Z |
| publishDate | 2021-06-01 |
| publisher | University of the Free State |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Perspectives in Education |
| spelling | doaj.art-7fdd812448fc4577a53576bb990f110c2024-03-11T23:05:32ZengUniversity of the Free StatePerspectives in Education0258-22362519-593X2021-06-01392Exploring the school-university mathematics skills gap for Economic SciencesIlsa Basson0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4578-4625Mardi Jankowitz1University of South AfricaUniversity of South Africa The training of highly skilled persons for the areas of Economics and Commerce requires that degree students upon entry need certain knowledge and skills in mathematics including aspects of statistics. The context is distance education and entry students seem unable to cope with the requirements of the mathematics-based topics that they need to study at the first year of tertiary education. It resulted in university staff speculating about a gap in pre-knowledge and skills. This study aims to investigate this phenomenon, starting with content and Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy analyses of final year school examination papers in mathematics, comparing it with similar analyses of first-year mathematics-based module examinations in the Economic sciences. Students that passed mathematics at school are supposed to have had adequate preparation for the first level Bachelor of Commerce. Coping with routine procedures mainly upon exit from secondary education does not signal well for the subsequent training of economists and commerce students. The situation seemingly does not improve at tertiary level where there is a further emphasis on routine procedures compared to higher order thinking skills. http://journals.ufs.ac.za/index.php/pie/article/view/4878Mathematics pre-knowledgeEconomic sciencesRevised Bloom's Taxonomy for MathematicsFinancial mathematics |
| spellingShingle | Ilsa Basson Mardi Jankowitz Exploring the school-university mathematics skills gap for Economic Sciences Perspectives in Education Mathematics pre-knowledge Economic sciences Revised Bloom's Taxonomy for Mathematics Financial mathematics |
| title | Exploring the school-university mathematics skills gap for Economic Sciences |
| title_full | Exploring the school-university mathematics skills gap for Economic Sciences |
| title_fullStr | Exploring the school-university mathematics skills gap for Economic Sciences |
| title_full_unstemmed | Exploring the school-university mathematics skills gap for Economic Sciences |
| title_short | Exploring the school-university mathematics skills gap for Economic Sciences |
| title_sort | exploring the school university mathematics skills gap for economic sciences |
| topic | Mathematics pre-knowledge Economic sciences Revised Bloom's Taxonomy for Mathematics Financial mathematics |
| url | http://journals.ufs.ac.za/index.php/pie/article/view/4878 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT ilsabasson exploringtheschooluniversitymathematicsskillsgapforeconomicsciences AT mardijankowitz exploringtheschooluniversitymathematicsskillsgapforeconomicsciences |