Statistical association and mathematical model between the reading comprehension and mathematical competence in students aspiring to engineering careers

Abstract

A mathematical model was defined to characterize the association between reading comprehension and mathematical competence in high school students aspiring to engineering careers at the University of the Guajira. The sample consisted of five hundred (500) students from grades six to eleven in the year 2017. The BECOMA and the Reading Comprehension Assessment Model were the instruments used to collect the information and its reliability was made through Cronbach's Alpha. The mathematical model was developed by linear regression between the variables of reading comprehension and mathematical competence for high school students with aged between 14 and 22 years. The mathematical model that best fitted the sample data was the reciprocal of natural y-logarithm of x with high statistical significance (p = 0.000), confidence level of 95%, correlation coefficient R =-0.993899 and determination of R 2 = 98.7834%. The Homocedasticity of the data was verified by the F-Fisher test (p = 0.4032241), the normality by Shapiro-Wilk (p = 0.777541) and the independence of the residues by Durbin-Watson (p = 0.3149).