Proposal of a mathematics pilot program for engineering students from vulnerable groups of Escuela politécnica Nacional

Abstract

Since 2017, Secretaría Nacional de Educación Superior, Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación (SENESCYT), has included, among the new students entering the Leveling Course of Escuela Politécnica Nacional (EPN), those from Affirmative Action population segment. These students tend to show low academic performance and high dropping out rates. Mathematics, of considerable importance for engineering training, is the subject that shows the lowest indicator of academic performance during high school, for this reason, EPN in response to this problem, proposes a Mathematics Pilot Program for students of engineering from vulnerable groups. To this end, it was conducted a descriptive analysis of the information of students enrolled in the Leveling Course between the semesters 2017-A and 2018-A, and based on the criteria of the teachers of the Leveling Course, a diagnostic test was designed and applied to the new students of the 2018-B semester, this test evaluated only basic Mathematics. It was determined that the students from Affirmative Action group presented low passing rate and high dropping out rate during the semesters under study, likewise, students of Affirmative Action group got a low average score in the diagnostic test which evidences poor academic level of these students prior to entering the Leveling Course. In this sense, it is proposed that the pilot program should be structured in 6 units, with special emphasis on Geometry and Trigonometry, and real-valued functions. It is recommended that the pilot program should be implemented as a course prior to the Leveling Course, so that the Government's Affirmative Action program fulfills its mission of effectively including students from vulnerable groups in the Higher Education System.