Quantitative methods in higher education: a typology of representations

Abstract

It is often concluded that higher levels of self-confidence in pupils in relation to their ability to interact with mathematics, associated to the perception of the latter's greater utility contributed for pupils making positive representations of this discipline. One of the objectives of this article is to inspect if in the university context this linear trend is maintained in the relation between the two dimensions – affective and instrumental – which structure the representations of the disciplines of quantitative methods. A second objective consists in observing how students from different courses (from different scientific areas) create their representations about these disciplines. A questionnaire was applied to a sample of students from a university institution. The definition of patterns of representations was done through the use of Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA), and Categorical Regression (Catreg) was employed to identify explaining factors in the students' profile. The results show that the space of the representations of quantitative methods in a university context is marked by heterogeneity, with a complexity that goes beyond this linear trend in the relation between the utility dimension and the affective dimension. Another conclusion is about the untenability of the thesis that points (at least in a non-university context) to the feminization of the lack of self-esteem and self-confidence to deal with disciplines from this scientific area. A further conclusion is that a course culture seems to exist, insofar as the courses tend to reflect a predominant pattern of representations of the quantitative methods.