Board # 36 : Engineering Faculty Perspectives on Student Mathematical Maturity

Abstract

He also has a courtesy appointment as a research assistant professor with the Department of Curriculum & Instruction. He earned his Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as a Mavis Future Faculty Fellow and conducted postdoctoral research with Ruth Streveler in the School of Engineering Education at Purdue University. His research interests include creating systems for sustainable improvement in engineering education, conceptual change and development in engineering students, and change in faculty beliefs about teaching and learning. He serves as the Publications Chair for the ASEE Educational Research and Methods Division.

When am I ever going to use this? An investigation of the calculus content of core engineering courses

“…This result corroborated evidence with interviews with engineering faculty, who stated that only a small fraction of the rules learned in calculus are used regularly in engineering (Faulkner, et al 2017;Ferguson, 2012;Ganter & Barker, 2004;Varsavsky, 1995;Yeatts & Hundhausen, 1992). Only the simplest rules of calculus are applied in circuits and statics.…”

“…Mathematics faculty are aware that engineers are dissatisfied with calculus outcomes and want to change to please these client disciplines, but are themselves not well-versed enough in the applications of calculus to do so alone (Cui, 2006;Yeatts & Hundhausen, 1992). Previous studies have found that both mathematics and engineering faculty are unaware of what goes on in the others' classrooms (Faulkner et al, 2017;Varsavsky, 1995;Willcox & Bounova, 2004;Yeatts & Hundhausen, 1992). Future studies could repeat this analysis for more courses such as introductory physics, chemistry, dynamics, and thermodynamics.…”

“…Skills that are not applied in subsequent courses might also be an obsolete topic as tasks requiring those skills are relegated to computers and no longer in active use in engineering, such as exact equations and integrating factors commonly taught in ordinary differential equations courses . The obsolescence explanation is suggested by interviews with engineering faculty (Cui, 2006;Faulkner et al, 2019;Faulkner, Herman, & Earl, 2017;Ferguson, 2012;Ganter & Barker, 2004;Varsavsky, 1995). Note that this would not apply to concepts as a lack of conceptual understanding has been shown to lead to erroneous diagrams in statics (Johnson-Glauch & Herman, 2019).…”

“…Unlike other work that analyzes interviews or workshops with faculty (Faulkner, Herman, & Earl, 2017;Ferguson, 2012;Ganter & Barker, 2004), we have chosen to analyze homework problems. Faculty testimony may include knowledge of the subject that is not explicitly incorporated into the course in the same way as homework.…”

Mathematical Maturity for Engineering Students

“…Mathematics faculty are aware that engineers are dissatisfied with calculus outcomes and want to change to please these client disciplines, but are themselves not well-versed enough in the applications of calculus to do so alone [77,91]. Previous studies have found that both mathematics and engineering faculty are ignorant of what goes on in the others' classrooms [61,60,91,114]. Future studies could repeat this analysis for more courses such as introductory physics, chemistry, dynamics, and thermodynamics.…”