Students’ Difficulties with Mathematics: Insights from Secondary-Tertiary Transition in a STEM Program

Abstract

Drop out during the first year at university STEM courses is a plague spreading all around the world and research in Mathematics Education revealed that mathematics is one of its main causes: not only the students’ mathematical knowledge, but also affective issues such as attitudes towards learning mathematics, views about mathematics itself, as well as emotions determine the students’ success or failure in university career. We investigate the intertwining of cognitive and affective dimensions in freshmen Engineering students attending a bridge course in mathematics at the beginning of the first semester at the Politecnico di Milano.