Sources of students’ frustration in pre-university level, prerequisite mathematics courses

This paper looks at sources of frustration in students of “prerequisite” mathematics courses (PMC), that is, courses required for admission into undergraduate programs in a large, urban, North American university. The research was based on responses to a questionnaire addressed to students and interviews with students and instructors. In the design of the questionnaire and the analysis of responses, an “institutional” theoretical perspective was taken, where frustration was conceived not only as a psychological process but also as a situation experienced by participants in a concrete educational institution. Several sources of frustration were identified as important in the group of respondents: the fast pace of the courses, inefficient learning strategies, the need to change previously acquired ways of thinking, difficult rapport with truth and reasoning in mathematics, being forced to take PMC, insufficient academic and moral support on the part of teachers, and poor achievement. These sources of frustration are discussed from the point of view of their impact on the quality of the mathematical knowledge that students develop in the PMC. Consideration is also given to the possibilities of improving the quality of this knowledge, given the institutional constraints implicated in the sources of students’ frustration.