PROBLEM SOLVING SKILLS IN DIFFERENTIAL CALCULUS: A SEFAKO MAKGATHO HEALTH SCIENCES UNIVERSITY FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS' CASE

Mathematics (math) is a vital subject. In the Sefako Makgatho Health Science University (SMU) is an entry requirement in many science programmes, and a compulsory subject at first year level for many other qualifications on campus. At higher levels of other subjects, differential calculus (DF) becomes a vital blockade in studying some concepts in other subjects, such as Statistics. A study was undertaken to determine how performance in DF at first year differed from other sections. This paper presents the findings of that study. The results showed that the teaching of DF was adequate from lecturer level, but student support beyond this was inadequate. Also, the performance in DF was higher than in other subjects, but still very low. It also emerged that while DF teaching needed an improvement, other sections needed a more intense improvement. The study proposed an improvement in DF, as well as in other topics mainly at the entry level to serve both as a solid foundation and encouragement in the math subject.