THE MATHEMATICS KNOWLEDGE OF COLLEGE-FRES HMEN - CLAIM AND REALITY - A UTILITY-ORIENTED APPROACH TO KNOWLEDGE OF MATHEMATICS IN COLLEGE-FRESHMEN

Mathematical and statistical methods and models are becoming increasin gly important in nearly all scientific disciplines. However, college f reshmen seem to be insufficiently prepared to cope with the demands th at this places on them, particularly in the previously more <<unmathem atical>> humanities and social sciences. The present article is concer ned with assessing the mathematical requirements of each college subje ct, performing a differentiated assessment of what college freshmen ac tually know, and detecting specific deficits by matching requirements to competencies from the perspective of utility theory. For this purpo se, we modified a well-known mathematics test and also constructed an expert rating procedure to ascertain and weight the demand characteris tics of nine college subjects. These procedures provided information o n the individual and group-specific value (utility) of mathematical kn owledge for each college subject and the specific student's aptitude f or that subject.