Enhancing Students’ Understanding in Integral Calculus through the Integration of Maple in Learning

Abstract

Students entering engineering and engineering technology courses at the university are expected to be competent in mathematics. This is due to the fact that mathematics, including calculus is a primary gateway to an engineering and engineering technology careers. However, the issue of under preparedness of students with diversity in mathematics background enrolling these two courses is at an alarming rate. One factor which can be improved to minimize this gap is to enhance the teaching technique of the subject. With the evolution of various forms of technology, a new approach of teaching integral calculus was developed in this study. Accordingly, this paper discusses the process of integrating Maple software in the teaching of the first year integral calculus topic. In addition, this paper also discusses how this approach can help to deepen the engineering technology students’ understanding in integral calculus topic at the university. Two groups of Technical Mathematics 2 with various mathematics backgrounds were randomly chosen to undergo the treatment. As an initial measurement, a pre-test on integral calculus was administered to these students to check their integral calculus background. The highest mark for the test was far below the passing mark, indicates that students involved in this study have a minimum understanding in secondary school integral calculus. These students were exposed to the treatment for five weeks. At the end of the treatment a post-test was administered to see the effect of the treatment on students’ understanding in integral calculus. Students in the experimental group were found to outperform their peers in the control group in both constructs investigated in this study. The effectiveness of the use of the technology in learning this topic may be enhanced further if its prerequisite topics were also exposed to the same strategy.