CALCULUS COURSES AT THE COMPUTER SCIENCE FACULTY, THE UNIVERSITY OF INDONESIA

Computer Science students at The University of Indonesia are among the top high school graduates. However, two years ago a report showed that for several semesters around twenty percents of them failed in calculus courses. The responses to questionnaires given by students and lecturers said that the students have lack of enthusiasm and they have low motivation in learning calculus, they questioned about the importance of calculus for their subsequent work in computer science, and they found that calculus is difficult and less challenging. This paper presents a new approach in teaching calculus given in the last three semesters, its effects, and obstacles. The approach is devoted to give students strong background in calculus and greater capacity to use the methods and hence better prepared to complete their degree in computer science. The approach is focused on helping students to better understand calculus conceptually, having higher problem solving and computational skill, and appreciating the relevance and the importance of calculus. The effort to achieve the goals includes encouraging independent learning, presenting relationship between calculus and computer science, providing computer related examples, using Maple for calculus projects, using computer science terms and style in explaining some calculus concepts. This approach has improved the grades and the students ’ perception about calculus. However, there are still some obstacles faced by both students and the lecturers