Mathematics education in engineering: a triple discontinuity?

Abstract

This paper focuses on the study of discontinuities in the teaching of mathematics in engineering within the framework of the anthropological theory of didactics (ATD) and, in particular, attempts to characterize the internal discontinuity between the teaching of mathematics and the role of mathematical activity in engineering subjects through an interview campaign with mathematics and engineering teachers. The first step of this research was the work piloting the interview protocol [12]. We now try to improve this protocol to overcome the fact that, even when both engineering and mathematics teachers seem to talk about the same content (solving linear systems, for example), the activity they are addressing is very different. Splitting the interview into two separate parts has allowed us to have a first online questionnaire that gives an explicit introduction about the notions of praxeology, the type of tasks and the technique of ATD to the interviewer and allows him/her to internalize them before conducting the live interview. The first analysis of the results shows that the interviewees are able to describe the mathematical activity (existing and desired) in terms of types of tasks and techniques previously introduced and seems to indicate that there is an important level of consensus on the important contents to be taught in the first year courses. However, some differences appear in the applicationist conception and its justification. Mathematics teachers seem to agree on a conception in which mathematics is a tool to be applied in engineering courses while engineering teachers see mathematics as an intrinsic component of engineering.