Experiences in the Integration of CAS into Engineering Education at the University of Pecs

CAS has a significant influence on all elements of the mathematics teaching and learning process. The involvement of CAS in teaching alters the structure of the material, the development of students ’ mathematical abilities, and attitudes of both students and teachers. There is an overall change in the pragmatic and epistemic values present in the education process. For instance, problem solving activities may become richer by means of new heuristics and novel approaches to experimentation and modelling. The integration of CAS in mathematics education provides significant and permanent didactical challenges and requires substantial reconsideration of teaching approaches. In the Department of Engineering at the University of Pecs, we have been employing a variety of CAS applications for the teaching of informatics students since 1998. Applying our accumulated experience, we have been continuously upgrading CAS-assisted teaching approaches in our courses. We consider modularization as a fundamental didactical issue in improving these courses. Characteristics of courses and the learning environmen