• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.121-127
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• 2020

The era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution is increasingly demanding mathematical competencies for virtual reality (VR), artificial intelligence (AI) and the like. In this context, this study intended to identify the basic mathematical competency levels of university freshman students in radiology department and to provide basic data thereon. For this, the diagnostic assessment of basic learning competencies for the domain of mathematics was conducted from June 17, 2019 to June 28, 2019 among 78 freshman students of radiology department at S university and D university. As a result, the university students' overall basic mathematical competency levels were diagnosed to be excellent. However, their levels in the sectors of the geometry and vector and the probability and statistics were diagnosed to be moderate, with the mean scores of 2.61 points and 2.64 points, respectively, which were found to be lower than those of the other sections. As for basic mathematical competency levels according to genders, the levels of male students and female students were diagnosed to be excellent, with the mean scores of 17.48 points and 16.29 points, respectively, showing no statistically significant difference (p>0.05). Given the small number of subjects and regional restriction, there might be some limitations in the generalization of the findings of the present study to all university freshman students and all departments. The above results suggest that it is necessary to implement various programs such as student level-based special lectures for enhancing basic mathematical competencies relating to major in order to improve the basic mathematical competencies of freshman students in radiology department, and that it is necessary to increase the students' mathematical competencies by offering major math courses in the curriculum and applying teaching-learning methods matching students' levels.