Myths, rhetoric and opportunities surrounding new teaching technologies: engineering mathematics education

Abstract

Issues of confidence and self-efficacy and expectancy relating to engineering students are not widely discussed. The transition to third level education is known to be a major stressor in the relationship between students and their prospects of completing their programmes of study. The foundations for this research project lie in a comparative study between students in Ireland and Finland; students participated in a series of questionnaires and group interviews and the thematic outputs of the process formed the basis for questioning of lecturers. Evidence from the data shows many students in the first year of study, demonstrate low levels of confidence, have poor knowledge of the assessment processes employed in Higher Education, and perceive many barriers to progress. Many lecturers do not share the outputs from the student data when individual lecturer interviews are analyzed. The research was extended to gather data from engineering students of similar educational standing in other countries to determine if evidence exists to support the findings. Initial analysis of the data suggests the findings of the initial research are not limited to the participating organisations.