Ability of engineering undergraduates to solve real function limit problems

Abstract

The society of the 21st century requires training of engineers capable of solving problems in applications of the limit of real functions. In this paper, the mathematical skills of three engineering degrees belonging to the 2019 cohort of a public university are analyzed. The objectives of this study are to investigate the skills of undergraduate students in solving mathematical problems, defined according to their nature in routine and non-routine, and according to their context, in real, realistic, fantasist, and purely mathematical. Also, identify and characterize the types of problems addressed, and to solicit the opinion about the level of difficulty of the problems involving the limit of real functions and on the prior knowledge that they need to achieve a better performance in their resolution. Students from three different engineering programs volunteered to participate in the study. The evaluation tool used consisted of a function limit application problem solving test, which was content validated by eight experts in the field, and an open-ended opinion questionnaire. The results favor the performance of the students in solving routine problems in fantasist contexts, and even guarantee the development of the mathematical skills necessary to solve non-routine problems of application of limits.