Students' perception of the role of mathematics in their physics education

Abstract: The deep interdisciplinarity between physics and mathematics is not always easy to grasp for students. Transferring mathematical skills to a physical context is demanding, and students mainly use mathematics tools (i.e., formulas) for pure calculations rather than as a basis for reasoning. This may create significant learning problems, which result in a lower understanding of physics.In this study, we want to investigate Swedish students' perception of the role of mathematics in their physics education during Högstadet and Gymnasiet (12-19 years old). We addressed this issue by developing a survey of 20 statements, in which the students had to express their level of agreement with each statement on a scale of 1 to 5. The survey had been designed to investigate topics that we found relevant, according to the literature of this specific area of physics education research, and aims to inform us about possible correlations between these various aspects.Here we present the most exciting results that emerged from our collected data. What we found supports the findings that being good at mathematics does not automatically give a broader view of how to use mathematics in physics. Regardless of students’ age and academic performance, the majority perceive no difference between mathematics when taught in a Mathematic class and a Physics class.