Proceedings of the 3rd Teaching & Education Conference, Barcelona

ENGINEERING PROBLEMS IN MATHEMATICS LESSONS IN HIGHER EDUCATION

NÁRCISZ KULCSÁR

Abstract:

It is a well-known problem that numerous disciplines and the connected labour market suffer from the lack of experts despite mass higher education. Subjects in engineering and natural sciences especially physics, chemistry and mathematics face a significant problem, namely interest of students turns away from these sciences. In engineering education in higher education, mathematics is a basic course in which students do not like to immerse deeply. Is there any way to recapture their interest in mathematics? A possible way could be teaching real-life problems, which can complete traditional education. As engineers solve real-life problems in their daily work their education should be practice-oriented, full of real-life problems. In my presentation I would like to present some possibilities how can we connect mathematics with real life, what are the advantages and difficulties of using real life problems in lessons, what kind of technical mediators can help teachers to illustrate mathematical problems, what is the role of visualization in calculus, how can we make relations between abstract science and real world.

Keywords: real-life problems, word problems, visualization, higher education, mathematics teaching

DOI: 10.20472/TEC.2016.003.014

PDF: Download