Thesis-1980-Singh.pdf (10.37 MB)
An investigation into the mathematical education of engineering undergraduates in Australian colleges of advanced education
educational resource
posted on 2017-06-07, 14:49 authored by J. Gurcharan SinghThe context of this study is set principally in the DOCIT*
colleges, the most significant subset of the Australian Colleges
of Advanced Education in terms of engineering education, where the
incidence of failure in mathematics courses amongst engineering
undergraduates gives rise to fundamental questions about their
mathematical education.
Starting with the student himself and his prior preparation at
school, the mathematical education of engineers is surveyed in all
its aspects.
Having established the indispensable groundwork that mathematics
and mathematical modelling form in engineering education, attention
is directed to the aims, objectives and underlying philosophy of
mathematical education. The implications for content and methods
of teaching and examining are considered.
The shortcomings in service teaching are signposted and remedies
suggested. Examination techniques are critically reviewed. The
need for, and the manner of reducing the discrepancies between
intention and achievement in teaching mathematics to engineers
prescribe the substance of this study.
A chapter elucidates the distinctive aims and functions of
universities and CAEs, since these inevitably imply a distinctive
emphasis in the design and implementation of courses and lend
perspective to the issues raised.
Quite apart from its great influence on the applications of
mathematics, it is shown how the computer in particular and
educational technology in general are valuable resources in making
mathematics learning more meaningful, stimulating and illuminating,
and for providing individualised instruction.
The "state of the art" is summarised by a number of surveys.
Recommended teaching syllabuses in mathematical methods, numerical
analysis and statistics are preceded by the mapping of considerations
that should influence the curriculum and its teaching.
The study urges a fundamental review of objectives and the methods
of achieving them, and its conclusions and recommendations are
stated.
* DOCIT: Directors of Central Institutes of Technology
History
School
- Science
Department
- Mathematical Sciences
Rights holder
© J. Gurcharan SinghPublisher statement
This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/Publication date
1980Notes
A Masters Dissertation, submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the award of Master of Science of Loughborough UniversityLanguage
- en
Qualification name
- MSc
Qualification level
- Masters