Challenging the role of mathematics in engineering education

Jack Ponton (Chemical Engineering) and Dai Hounsell (Higher and Community Education)

Description

Engineering educators are concerned about the ability of today's students to handle the, largely classical, mathematics which traditionally underlies the teaching of engineering.

At the same time engineering as practiced by graduates is becoming increasingly less dependent on a knowledge of classical mathematics, as the tools used by professional engineers become embodied in computer packages.

The main reaction to to the perceived problems of mathematics in engineering has been a `remedial' one, i.e. either to provide additional training in mathematical skills, or, while retaining the core of the traditional mathematical approach to engineering education, to minimally simplify this mathematics.

We propose to explore the idea that since most graduates no longer use the classical mathematical skills, engineering teachers could substantially rethink the whole approach to their subject in order to eliminate the need for nearly all of classical mathematics, without damage to the quality of the `engineering' element of students' educational experience or to their final performance as professional engineers.

Aims and Objectives

We wish to establish the validity of the idea above, by exploring initially the role of mathematics in the teaching of fluid mechanics in engineering courses. This topic has the advantage of being a) intrinsically mathematical, b) pursued, with somewhat different emphasis, by 3 of the 4 main engineering disciplines. It also is an area where powerful computational tools have now replaced much complicated mathematics in real world practice.
  1. We aim to establish and summarise:
    1. What are the main mathematical issues in the subject.
    2. What educational research has been done on this type of mathematics in engineering and what ongoing initiatives and developments are relevant.
    3. What engineering departments see as most pressing issues concerning maths in this area of engineering.
    4. What has been the response of engineering departments to:
      • perceived changes in maths ability of entrants to engineering
      • changes in professional engineering practice
      • impact of educational initiatives and of going research
  2. With this information we would aim to establish the possibility of radical changes in the approach to teaching this topic, outline the possible nature of these changes and establish directions for future work in their development.

Rationale

Engineering is a quantitative discipline, traditionally strongly based on mathematics.

However, the modern practice of engineering requires a diminishing amount of skill in mathematical manipulation as sophisticated computational tools have become widely available.

Current teaching of engineering still requires significant skill in both mathematical manipulation and understanding.

Nearly all students find the mathematical content of engineering courses difficult. Students with nontraditional backgrounds find this mathematics particularly difficult or impossible.

Students' mathematical background thus limits access to engineering degree programs.

How can we adapt the teaching of engineering, including related mathematics, to provide `understanding' without extensive manipulations, so increasing the accessibility of engineering courses?

We plan to take a positive attitude to the changes which modern information technology enables us to make to our teaching, rather than taking a negative view that this has to be adapted to deal with students' diminished mathematical skills.

Activities

1a above will be carried out largely by the engineering investigator with the assistance of colleagues, on the basis of his and their experience. A recently retired colleague with a particular interest and long experience in the topic will be able to provide input.

1b will be a review carried out by a part time research assistant in education with technical input from the engineering investigator and the supervision of the educational investigator.

1c and 1d will be covered by a combination of questionaires, which can be sent to all UK engineering departments, and by visits and interviews at a smaller number, e.g. 8-10, departments. Because of the interdisciplinary nature of fluid mechanics several different viewpoints can be covered in a single visit.

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