Mind the Gap: A preliminary Investigation into the Gaps Between Faculty and Student Expectations in Engineering Mathematics Instruction

© 2019 American Society for Engineering EducationThe connection between mathematics and engineering, that is the ability for students to transfer their knowledge between mathematics courses and other engineering courses, has been documented as difficult for students (Holmegaard, Madsen, & Ulriksen, 2016; Basitere & Ivala, 2015; Klingbeil, Rattan, Raymer, Reynolds, & Mercer, 2009; Willcox & Bounova, 2004; Harper, Baker, & Grzybowski, 2013). By looking at faculty views regarding the mathematics that is learned while in undergraduate engineering, I argue that mathematics plays an important role in undergraduate engineering, yet faculty often believe that the students are inadequately equipped with the mathematics skills they need, which is essential because mathematics is foundational for engineering design. Through a mixed-methods study over the course of the 2017-2018 academic year, we sought to answer the following questions: To what extent does mathematics play an important role in undergraduate engineering education? Do professors believe that undergraduate engineering students can competently apply mathematic principles in engineering classes? And finally, how should mathematics be taught as it relates to undergraduate engineering? The initial findings suggest faculty believe that mathematics plays an important role in engineering, calculus being the most important, with linear algebra and statistics also playing a significant role. Faculty also believe that mathematics should be taught as a means of communicating (i.e. through mathematical modelling). Faculty also believe that students’ competence ranks lower than the importance of the general and specific mathematics skills. Finally, faculty were unsure if mathematics should be taught toward the abstract or the applied, but in general, believe that it should have some examples that are tied to engineering. Mathematics instruction to engineering students is often taught through two lenses, an abstract or an applied lens. While both categories of mathematics are essential in undergraduate engineering, a third paradigm for teaching is offered, an engineering mathematics lens, which combines both the necessity for an understanding both in abstract and applied mathematics, but relates examples to all facets of engineering. An engineering mathematics lens could offer part of a solution to helping to close the gap in faculty and student expectations as it relates to mathematics instruction in engineering education