The association between engineering students’ self-reported mathematical identities and average grades in mathematics courses

Abstract

Arguments have been made that one purpose of learning mathematics successfully is for students to develop mathematical identities. Thus, since students are frequently evaluated with grades in university mathematics courses, a relevant question is how mathematical identities are associated with average grades. This study has measured engineering students’ mathematical identities and compared these measures with grades in university mathematics courses, and a Welch’s ANOVA conclude that the mean average grade amongst students with high mathematical identities is significant, and about one grade higher than students with low mathematical identities. Moreover, the variance is greater amongst students with low mathematical identities, which indicates a strong association between mathematical identity and average grade only when mathematical identities are high.