Conceptual and procedural approaches - Engelbrecht, Bergsten, Kågesten, 2012
Engelbrecht, J., Bergsten, C. & Kågesten, O. (2012) Conceptual and procedural approaches to mathematics in the engineering curriculum: student conceptions and performance. Journal of Engineering Education, 101(1), 138-162.
The authors develop an instrument to measure performance, confidence and familiarity with both procedural and conceptual problems in mathematics. The students were second-year engineering students in two institutions in two countries - South Africa and Sweden. The authors provide definitions of the relevant terms and take issue with some education literature using terms like “conceptual” and “knowledge” too loosely and conflating them with other terms. The paper presents detailed data and analysis, finding differences and similarities across different groups (read the paper for details), concluding that “the use of mathematics in other subjects within engineering education can be experienced differently by students from different institutions indicating that the same type of education can handle the application of mathematics in different ways at different institutions.” (p. 158/9)
Do not treat this blog entry as a replacement for reading the paper. This blog post represents the understandings and opinions of Torquetum only and could contain errors, misunderstandings and subjective views.
The authors develop an instrument to measure performance, confidence and familiarity with both procedural and conceptual problems in mathematics. The students were second-year engineering students in two institutions in two countries - South Africa and Sweden. The authors provide definitions of the relevant terms and take issue with some education literature using terms like “conceptual” and “knowledge” too loosely and conflating them with other terms. The paper presents detailed data and analysis, finding differences and similarities across different groups (read the paper for details), concluding that “the use of mathematics in other subjects within engineering education can be experienced differently by students from different institutions indicating that the same type of education can handle the application of mathematics in different ways at different institutions.” (p. 158/9)
Do not treat this blog entry as a replacement for reading the paper. This blog post represents the understandings and opinions of Torquetum only and could contain errors, misunderstandings and subjective views.