Mathematical teaching innovations: The DLSU-Manila College of Engineering experience

• Main Authors: Brondial, Yolanda P., Lazaro, Amada Cecilia Santos
• Format: text
• Published: Animo Repository 2006
• Subjects: Engineering mathematics—Study and teaching; Engineering; Mathematics
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/faculty_research/6332
• Institution: De La Salle University

Mathematics is the language of science and the foundation of most of the major subjects in engineering. Its significance should be cultivated and emphasized from the first mathematics course, which is algebra. Engineering algebra (ENGLAGE) was formerly a 3-unit subject with two hours of lecture and three lecture hours per week. For the last 3 school years it has been offered as a 4-unit subject with two hours of lecture and three hours of computational laboratory per week. This computational laboratory (CL) is an experimental remediation or enrichment to deepen the students’ comprehension and retention of the basic skills and concepts in algebra with the objective of increasing the percentage passing in ENGALGE. This study compared the classroom performance of freshman students in the College of Engineering for two school years without the CL and two school years with CL to compare and determine if the CL produces a positive effect on the classroom performance of the students as reflected in their final grades. Other basic mathematics courses required in engineering are the following: trigonometry, analytic and solid geometry, differential calculus and integral calculus. This study also traces how many students proceeded to take the abovementioned subjects and to find out whether there was an improvement in their classroom performance as well. Results showed that the percentage of passing ENGALGE with CL were higher than those without by 6.51%. likewise, students performed better in their TRIGSOL subject by 3.41%. aside from having increased percentage passing in their succeeding mathematics subjects, it was observed that the students committed lesser errors in their algebraic manipulations. A t-test was also done and results showed that for all subjects there is a significant difference between the grades. For the batch without CL the total number of students who took ENGALGE was 1276 and out of this only 878 students took ENGALGE2 representing 68.81%, whereas for those with CL, out of 1155 ENGALGE students, 883 took ENGALGE2 Which represents 76.45%. These results proved that offering ENGALGE with CL gives more advantages in terms of higher % passing and more students moving on to higher mathematics subjects.