MATH TEACHING

Attention to students graduating from the UFAC Mathematics Degree course

Abstract

UFAC's undergraduate mathematics course has shown a high retention and dropout rate, which occurs most sharply during the first three periods of commencement of the course. Classes start with 50 students each year, but by the end of the first year, you can see a considerable reduction in the presence of students in the classroom, either because of dropouts on the part of students or because they were somehow held back. failures in subjects. This is increasing as it progresses in subsequent periods, contributing to a considerable reduction in the number of graduates, which is around forty percent, according to data obtained from the Course Coordination. Thus, after an evaluation process was diagnosed that one of the problems to be faced is related to the little, or no stimulus received by the student at the time of joining the course. Retention and dropout in the subjects of the first periods are also related to the lack of motivation and adequacy of the egress in the university environment because it has to adapt quickly to the different models of education from that of the High School. In our opinion, for this adaptation to be successful, the help of tutors, teachers, and veterans seems to be necessary, but not always the classes graduating in the course have this help, and this makes many discourage because it is a course considered complex. Due to the little stimulus, some students end up dropping out of the course and a part of those who remain to fail in a large number of subjects. Thus, in order to help graduating students and contribute to the reduction of dropout and retention rates, we are running an extension project based on mobilization and information techniques on aspects of Mathematics and Mathematics Teacher Training, considered as challenges for improving teaching, whether at the university or in Basic Education, the locus of action of future teachers of this important subject. The project is based on the direct intervention of the students of the Tutorial Education Program (PET): Connections of Knowledge in Mathematics through the formation of study groups in which will be listed the difficulties in egress mathematics.