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Providing opportunities for individual practice and assessment in a large undergraduate mathematics course
Publikationstyp
Conference Paper
Date Issued
2016-08-08
Sprache
English
Start Page
13
End Page
20
Citation
Sixth International Symposium of Engineering Education. - ISEE 2016 – University of Manchester. - Seite 13-20 (2016)
Contribution to Conference
Publisher DOI
Publisher
TJ International
many universities, undergraduate courses of fundamental subjects such as mathematics are taught to students enrolled in many different course programs. Since the fundamental subject is then taught without using examples from the students’ main subjects, this often results in low student motivation in the fundamental subject and lacking knowledge and skills of this subject even when necessary for the understanding of the students’ main subject. At Hamburg University of Technology, this applies to first year mathematics, which is taught in the same course to 1300 students enrolled in 12 different engineering study programs.
We here present our approach to solving this dilemma: Opportunities for individual practice and feedback tailored to the needs of students of the different study courses, such that students apply mathematical concepts in the context of their main subject. This helps them to see the relevance of the content which might otherwise be perceived as bothersome and irrelevant, thereby increasing student motivation. Providing additional practice opportunities also increases perceived student self-efficacy, in turn enhancing motivation.
We discuss our strategies to enhance student motivation as well as potential pitfalls and vicious circles and how to avoid them.
We here present our approach to solving this dilemma: Opportunities for individual practice and feedback tailored to the needs of students of the different study courses, such that students apply mathematical concepts in the context of their main subject. This helps them to see the relevance of the content which might otherwise be perceived as bothersome and irrelevant, thereby increasing student motivation. Providing additional practice opportunities also increases perceived student self-efficacy, in turn enhancing motivation.
We discuss our strategies to enhance student motivation as well as potential pitfalls and vicious circles and how to avoid them.
DDC Class
530: Physik
600: Technik
620: Ingenieurwissenschaften