The Mathematical Education of Scientists and Technologists—A Personal View†

Abstract

Summary There is a current crisis in the mathematical education of scientists and technologists. The problem is partly due to the fact that the ‘modern’ mathematics syllabuses being taught in the schools do not provide a suitable foundation upon which traditional ‘service’ courses can be built. The demise of such traditional service courses is, however, to be welcomed since they constitute a prostitution of mathematics, which is not just a series of techniques and which, when so regarded, becomes robbed of all its significance, interest, and most of its value. A careful analysis of the process of mathematical modelling shows just how far the mathematical ‘world’ is removed from the complicated physical world of reality except in the simplest of cases. The crisis should be resolved, not simply by translating traditional material into modern notation (though this needs to be done), but by replacing service courses by integrated courses whose theme is mathematical modelling and which are prepared and taught by joint teams of mathematicians, scientists and technologists. There are very substantial benefits from adopting a radical new approach to the mathematical education of the ‘users’ of mathematics.