Abstract:

The COVID-19 pandemic situation has led higher education institutions (HEIs) around the world to resort to distance learning, raising the question of the greater or lesser appropriateness of the teaching methodologies used depending on the syllabus and requirements of each course unit. The aim of this study is to report on the differences in the final results of the assessment of course units in the scientific area of mathematics in two higher education institutions in two different countries within the Portuguese language, Portugal and Brazil. The quantitative and exploratory study aims to highlight observable differences in student outcomes by analyzing final grades in the 2019/2020 academic year, and in the 2020/2021 academic year. The question we propose to answer is whether the change in the modality of classes from face-to-face teaching to distance learning impacted the students' final results, inferring a greater or lesser ability to adapt the teaching and assessment methodologies to the distance learning situation. The sample was constituted in the Portuguese HEI by the results obtained in the course units of Mathematical Analysis I and II, Numerical Analysis, Algebra, Mathematics and Mathematics for Economics and Management, in a total of 638 students. In the Brazilian HEI, the sample consisted of the results obtained in the course units of Calculus I and Calculus II, for a total of 120 students.

The grades were summarized in Excel and compared between the two academic years for each HEI. There was, in general, a decrease in the students' grades from the 2019/2020 school year to the 2020/2021 school year, in the set of Curricular Units, presenting a standard deviation that ranged between .51 and .31. in the Brazilian case and between 2.0 and 1.7 in the Portuguese case. These results robust the idea that the HEIs' professors, during online classes, were concerned with diversifying teaching methodologies and focusing more on their students' learning.

We conclude the fluctuation of the results obtained by changes in teaching methodology, indicating the need for the development and application of active methodologies in teaching, according to the specificities of the Mathematics Curricular Units, framing this study in the line of UNESCO's intention to support distance learning and open science.

This work intends to leave its contribution to the reflection and subsequent adoption of active methodologies in teaching that allow reducing the impact of future changes in teaching methodologies, taking into account the specificities of the Mathematics Curricular Units.

Keywords:

Mathematics, Higher Education, teaching methodologies, COVID-19.