Abstract:

Skill deficiencies in topics that pertain to academic pre-requisites for engineering progams of study have been, for many decades, a major cause of failure for a considerable number of students in mexican schools. Remedial programs have been tried with poor results that hardly justify their costs in time and money. It is the opinion of the author that the main defect of such programs is their lack of focus on those particular deficiencies that are most dangerous and potentially destructive for the academic performance of a student. In this study a method is proposed for ranking skill deficiencies that students entering schools of engineering often have, according to the severity of their known negative effects on academic outcomes. The method shows how to arrive at a judicious estimation of the strength of the negative impact that such deficiencies may have on the academic performance of a student.

A three-level scale is proposed for the ranking: H = high, for major skill deficiencies with the capability to cause a complete failure of the student in his program of study, if they are not opportunely repaired; M = medium, for deficiencies that can only delay the advance of the student, but will not usually make him fail by themselves, even though they still need to be remediated; L = low, which corresponds to minor skill deficiencies that can only have a marginal effect on student performance. The ranking of a skill deficiency on a particular topic is performed on the basis of the combined effects of two key issues:
a) the relevance of that topic for the disciplines of the program of study, and
b) the degree of difficulty that an average student will most probably find to remediate it by himself.

The author thinks that the sole availability of a trustful way of ranking skill deficiencies, that yields a clear identification of the ones that are most harmful, will allow the engineering schools and the teachers to implement remedial actions accurately targeted to the most important needs of their students.

Keywords:

Skill deficiencies, skill deficiencies ranking, engineering education.