Abstract
Mathematics is tightly interwoven with science and engineering, where it has numerous applications. In the educational context, there is an ongoing debate who should teach mathematics to non-mathematicians and how this mathematics should be taught. The knowledge gained in mathematics course is used in another course (mathematics, science or engineering), hence students should retain core concepts some time after learning. Beliefs that students have about mathematics significantly influence on their learning, and consequently on the retained knowledge. We investigated retained calculus knowledge and beliefs about mathematics in two groups of first year students coming from the science and engineering study programs. The results showed that both groups of students showed better procedural knowledge than conceptual. Also they showed positive beliefs about mathematics in their study program, but were not certain where this knowledge will be used later. However they differed in the perception of mathematics as being exciting discipline. The educational implications of these findings are also discussed.
Highlights
Problem of communication between professional mathematicians and students who study in non-mathematics study programmes often represents an obstacle in comprehending taught subject matter (Maull & Berry, 2000)
Some academics advocate that the teaching of mathematics must be in the hands of professional mathematicians, while others argue that the engineering departments should integrate mathematics into the engineering courses; some academics support rigor/formality approach for teaching mathematics, while others argue against it (Flegg et al, 2012)
We investigated retained calculus knowledge in the engineering and science students two months after instructions and examination have taken place
Summary
Problem of communication between professional mathematicians and students who study in non-mathematics study programmes often represents an obstacle in comprehending taught subject matter (Maull & Berry, 2000). In non-mathematics study programs like engineering, there is an ongoing debate who should teach mathematics to non-mathematicians and how this mathematics should be taught. In the secondary education in Croatia, and in many other countries as well, these disciplines are portrayed and taught as disciplines distant from each other, even when the same teacher teaches them. This mathematics-science debate has moved from the secondary education into the higher education with a bit different form and language, focusing on specific competences that students should gain in the undergraduate science curriculum (Orton & Roper, 2000)
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