Revista Educação em Questão
Print version ISSN 0102-7735On-line version ISSN 1981-1802
Abstract
ZARPELON, Edinéia and RESENDEIS MAURICIO MARTINS DE. Academic commitment: a relevant variable to the performance of engineering students in Calculus I. Rev. Educ. Questão [online]. 2019, vol.57, n.51, e-15381. Epub Sep 13, 2019. ISSN 1981-1802. https://doi.org/10.21680/1981-1802.2019v57n51id15381.
This article, the result of a master's research, aims to present the conceptions of engineering students on the reasons that led them to be approved or fail in the course of Calculus I when freshmen, in order to verify the hypothesis that commitment interferes significantly in the performance achieved in the course. This is an applied research, with an explanatory nature with a qualitative approach, whose sample consists of 17 engineering students who have attended the course of Calculus I. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and examined under the perspective of content analysis proposed by Bardin (2011). The student reports indicate that the students’ attitudes adopted at the time were determinant for the performance obtained in Calculus I, suggesting that the academic commitment is a relevant variable in the context of approvals or failures in the course. Moreover, the narratives indicate other variables, evidencing the multifactorial nature implied in the phenomenon of failures in Calculus I.
Keywords : Engineering; Calculus I; Academic performance; Student attitude.