Perceptions on the Relevance of Mathematics by Computer and Communication Engineering Students Wan Azizun Wan Adnan, Makhfudzah Mokhtar, Syarifah Mumtazah Syed Ahmad,Syed Abdul Rahman Al-Haddad, Faisul Arif Ahmad

Introduction Mathematics is always being made compulsory for engineering students. However, the students might not be able to relate the mathematics topics they learned with engineering applications. The aim of this exploratory study is to find out students’ perception on the relevance of mathematics for their future career as an engineer as well as to find out any soft skills they developed during the mathematic courses.

Research Questions How students perceive the relevance of mathematics to be an engineer. Is there any significant difference between the gender and the different cohorts of students on their perceptions on the mathematics relevance. Along side the mathematical knowledge obtained, is there any soft skills the students developed during their mathematic courses

Methodology A mixed-method design in which both quantitative and qualitative data were collected. The participants of the study consisted of 121 students (60 females and 61 males) from first year, second year, third year and until final  year students.  The questionnaire consists of eight 5-point Likert-scale ranging from 1 strongly disagree to 5 strongly agree statements adopted from Flegg[2] with modifications in the statements as being done by Alves et al [2 ]and The three open ended questions : the soft skill developed during their mathematics courses and the specific mathematics topics which they think will be relevant for them to be an engineer.

Results and Discussion

Result of Survey Statements Disagree/ Strongly Disagree Agree/ Strongly Agree Average I can understand how mathematical skills that I am acquiring will be useful in developing my career as engineer 11(9%) 90(74%)   3.84 The way of thinking that is being taught in the mathematic courses remain after I graduate. 12(9.9%) 67(55%) 3.6 I feel that in these mathematic courses, I learn how to formulate and solve problems directly related to engineering. 10(8.2%) 83(68.6%) 3.83 The mathematic courses puts me challenges that will be useful to achieve the engineer graduation. 95(78.5%) 4 The ability to communicate effectively by using mathematical arguments is an important skill to develop. 9(7.4%) 74(61%) The formal and rigorous aspects of mathematics are important in my future career as engineer 86(71.1%) 3.9 For me, I just want to learn what I think will come out on the test or exam 38(31.4%) 36(29.8%) 3.1 In the engineering curriculum, there are too many topics involving mathematics, which makes me consider quitting engineering program 70(57.9%) 28(23.1%) 2.48

The average score of each statement for male and female

The average score of each statement for each cohort.

Findings The results show that that the majority of students (>50%) agree on the first 6 statements on the relevance of mathematics. Our findings also show that there is no significant difference between the gender for all the 8 statements. However, between cohorts, there is a different in response for statement 4 and 6.

Open-ended questions: give activities through learning mathematics that helped them to develop the soft skills. “…I learnt teamwork skill by having group discussion in solving a particular questions” “ group project (leadership skills)” “group leader in group project” “group project (team work)”

Open ended question: on any mathematical concept learnt that can be applied in engineering. Responses from the first year students Not sure.. I have no idea… during working, we used lots of calculation ..

Conclusion The result from this study can be used to improve the engineering education curriculum especially during their first semester where engineering application could be introduced along side the mathematics topic taught in order for the students to appreciate the relevance of mathematics in engineering.

TERIMA KASIH / THANK YOU www.upm.edu.my