Are you off to a good start? The “Journal of the Day” experience

The aim of the project described in this article was helping students in the Agricultural and Food Science Faculty in the critical transition from high school to university, especially as far as mathematics is concerned, by accompanying them through reflection on their own study methods and learning processes. We decided to propose a teaching activity using the personal journal acting on two levels, both metacognitive and disciplinary, to lead students to the acquisition of greater awareness by accompanying them in a process of reflection not only about their own characteristics as students but also as mathematicians. This insight into each student's personal academic journey allowed us also to get a macro view of the course and to organise in a timely manner catch-up activities on the topics that students perceived as most challenging.