Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 60 ( 2012 ) 365 – 371
1877-0428 © 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer reviewed under responsibility of the UKM Teaching and Learning Congress 2011 doi: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.09.392
UKM Teaching and Learning Congress 2011
Analysis on Mathematics Fundamental Knowledge for Mathematics
Engineering Courses based on a Comparative Study of Students'
Entry Performance
Haliza Othman
a,b,, Izamarlina Asshaari
a,b, Norgainy Mohd Tawil
a,b,
Nur Arzilah Ismail
a,b, Zulkifli Mohd Nopiah
a,b, Azami Zaharim
aaCentre for Engineering Education Research, Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia bUnit of Fundamental Engineering Studies, Faculty of Engineering and Build Environment, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
Abstract
Entrants to engineering undergraduate degree courses in all higher institutions in Malaysia, who had undertaking pre-university programme such as Matriculation, Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysia (STPM), Asasi Sains, Fundamental Study or Diploma, had studied mathematics and physics as a pre-requisite. Consequently, it is crucial to understand the level of mathematics knowledge that a student acquired upon entry to undergraduate engineering programme particularly on that subjects. This understanding will help lecturers to improve students’ performance by constructing a suitable first year curriculum and to ascertain whether a student would benefit from additional support. In this paper, data from Pre-Test for academics session 2008/2009 and 2009/2010, which was given to the first semester of first year students, at Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment (FKAB), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) are used to illustrate how students’ entry performance have changed. Questions on Pre-Test covered on elementary mathematical concepts such as functions and graphs, differentiation, integration, vectors and etc. The objective of this study is to identify the mathematical topics which are considered difficult and challenging by the students. The study also exhibits the performance shown by the male and female students and to identify topics where they get the best performance. The findings showed that the students were lack of knowledge in certain important topics in mathematics, which is a core subject in engineering study.
© 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer reviewed under responsibility of the UKM Teaching and Learning Congress 2011.
Keywords : Students’ Entry Performance; Pre-Test; Engineering Mathematics; Genders
1. Introduction
Mathematics is a significant topic supporting a large number of engineering courses and consequently, it is important for engineering students to hold a strong mathematics fundamental knowledge that can keep their
Corresponding author. Tel: +6-03-8921-6962; fax:+6-03-8921-6960.
E-mail address:[email protected].
© 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer reviewed under responsibility of the UKM Teaching and Learning Congress 2011Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
motivation for equitable progress of their engineering programmes. Pyle (2001) stated that engineering as a profession requires a clear understanding of mathematics, sciences and technology and Sazhin (1998) mentioned that engineering graduate acquires not only a practical but also abstract understanding of mathematics. Therefore, it is crucial that in university level, most of programs of study require mathematics, at which the ability to master mathematical skills are important indicator of potential for students’ in all levels of academics endeavours (Tang et
al., 2009). Lawson (2003) found that changes in basic mathematical knowledge have direct effect to many
mathematical skills that are essential for those undergraduate degree courses with a significant mathematical content. Meanwhile, study done by Lawson (1997) and Stephen et al. (2008) revealed that there has been declining in the ability of students in certain fundamental mathematical topics recently. This is the consequences of students' prior experiences and knowledge they earned from pre-university learning process.
In Malaysia education system, students entering university with diverse pre-university qualification and background, especially FKAB, UKM received students with Matriculation, Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysia (STPM), Asasi Sains, Fundamental Study and Diploma backgrounds into its engineering undergraduate programmes. Consequently, there is variation in the students’ prior knowledge especially in mathematics.According to Alfan and Othman (2005) knowledge earned prior to entering the university such as economics, mathematics and accounting is crucial in assisting the students in undertaking the courses in both business and accounting programme. This study also applicable to engineering programme and in-line with Lawson (2000) which mentioned that mathematics is the underpin topics for the engineering programme in higher education. However, Adamson and Clifford (2002) and Todd (2001) in their study found that pre-university qualification cannot be reliably predictors of students’ performance in university and this become the reason why mathematics diagnostic test and Pre-test is used widespread in university. Stephen et al. (2008) stated that mathematics diagnostic test and Pre-test not only useful for gaining information on students’ prior knowledge but also the best predictors of future performance. Mathematics Pre-Test also provides a more detailed insight into which area of mathematics that the students do or don’t know.
This study is a part of action research project to investigate the students’ performance in mathematics engineering courses in FKAB, UKM and extension of the papers done by Zainuri et al. (2009) and Othman et al. (2009), which are presented during the congress of Kongres Pengajaran dan Pembelajaran UKM 2009 at Langkawi, Kedah. Thus, this study focus on the students’ entry performance from 2008 to 2010 (and onward) based on mathematics Pre-Test. The objective of this study is to identify the mathematical topics which are considered difficult and challenging by the first year engineering students. This paper also discusses the students' performance based on genders, specifically in which mathematics topics, male or female students performed better than others.
2. Methodology
A set of mathematics Pre-Test were given to the first year students from academics session 2008/2009 to academics session 2009/2010 at Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment (FKAB), UKM during second week of each semester. Questions on the Pre-Test covered on elementary mathematical concepts such as functions and graphs, differentiation, integration, vectors and etc. A total number of 327, 296 and 232 students from academics session 2006/2007, 2008/2009 and 2009/2010, respectively, are involved in this study. Results were analyzed on the performance based on genders and topics.
3. Results and Analysis
Figure 1 show the pre-test result based on students’ entry performance from academics session 2008/2009 to academics session 2009/2010. Student from session 2008/2009 obtain better result with average of 74.44% compared to session 2009/2010 with 67.90%. In the range of 80-100, students from session 2008/2009 performed better than students from session 2009/2010 with 48.3% and 33.2%, respectively (Figure 1). For the lowest range, that is 20-40, student from session 2008/2009 once again shows a better result where only 3% in this range as compared to session 2009/2010.
Figure 1. Pre-test result based on students’ entry performance from academics session 2008/2009 to 2009/2010
The Pre-Test result is also compared across gender as shown in Figure 2 and Figure 3. Overall, male students performed better compared to female students from academics session 2008/2009 to 2009/2010. It is found that both male and female students from session 2008/2009 get the highest average result, which is 77.44 and 69.97, respectively.
Figure 3. Pre-test result for female students from academics session 2008/2009 to 2009/2010
Figure 4 shows the percentage distribution of the students who answered correctly for each topic covered in Pre-Test for academics session 2008/2009 and 2009/2010. In the session 2008/2009, students obtain the highest score on the topic of Functions and Graph that is 92.91%. Meanwhile in the session 2009/2010, the highest score is on the topic of Matrices and System of Linear Equation that is 96.12%. Students from both academics sessions performed badly in Vectors topic, which are 47.97% and 40.52%, respectively. Comparison between two sessions, session 2009/2010 had obtained slightly above average on topics Number System, Limit and Continuity and Numerical Method compared to session 2008/2009 which get more than 60% for these topics.
Figure 4. Pre-Test result based on topics
Keys:
T1 Number System T6 Functions and Graph T11 Trigonometry
T2 Equation T7 Limits and Continuity T12 Application of Differentiation T3 Partial Fraction T8 Differentiation T13 Differential Equation T4 Sequence and Series T9 Integration T14 Numerical Method T5 Matrices and System of Linear
Equation
T10 Coordinate Geometry
Figure 5 and Figure 6 depicts the Pre-Test result across topics and genders. Male students performed better in Partial Fraction (92.7%) while female students performed better in Function and Graphs (94.1%) for academics session 2008/2009. Meanwhile in academics session 2009/2010, both gender performed better in the topic of Matrices and System of Linear Equation. Overall, both male and female students performed badly in Vectors topic for academics session 2008/2009 and 2009/2010.
Figure 5. Pre-Test result based on male student across topic
4. Discussion
The study revealed that students' intake for academic session 2008/2009 noticeably performance well compared to the intake from academic session 2009/2010. Even, the intake from academics session 2008/2009 did well compared to 2009/2010 for both male and female students for the Pre-Test performance. Comparison between genders for academics sessions 2008/2009 and 2009/2010, obviously shows that male students’ performance better in Pre-Test compared to female students.
Based on the results in this study we can agreed with the findings found by Lawson (2003), that there has been a significant decline in many mathematical skills that are regarded by higher education as essential for those undertaking degree courses with significant mathematical content such as engineering programme. This scenario can be observed in the comparison between intake from academics session 2008/2009 and 2009/2010 at FKAB, UKM based on mathematics topics, which obviously shown that there were decrease in percentage of answering Pre-Test questions correctly.
The factors of the declining in the mathematics performance of newly intake students for academics session 2009/2010 might be cause by various reasons. Hoyles et al. (2001) mentioned that the role of higher education in UK, particularly has changed significantly. At the same time the numbers of students accepted to university increased substantially due to the change in education policy of government and also the aims and objectives of a university engineering degree programme have undergone dramatically change in order to fulfil employers' expectation and demands. Meanwhile, Hill et al. (2005) study revealed that teachers' mathematical knowledge was significantly influence students’ performance. Thus this finding provides support for government to design policy in order to improve students' mathematics performance by improving teachers' mathematics knowledge. Consequently, lack of academic skills, such as essay writing and note taking, lack of self-management skills, lack of confidence in generic skills and poor time management (Goldfinch and Hughes, 2007) are among the factor contribute to the declining performance of year one students.
5. Conclusion
This paper revealed students from academic session 2008/2009, for male and female, achieved better performance in the Pre-Test than students from academic session 2009/2010. However, the students from both academics sessions and genders performed poorly in the topics of Vector and followed by Limit and Continuity. These findings absolutely alarming for lecturers in FKAB, UKM since these topics are the main mathematical contents required in engineering courses. Therefore, with these findings and understanding, lecturers need to take a proactive action in order to understand the problems faced by students in an effort to improve student performance by creating an appropriate curriculum for first year students and determine whether students would benefit from additional support.
On the other hands, since these students are the end product of Ministry of Education (MOE), thus MOE should reviewed the teaching and learning method and syllabus for the mathematics courses in Matriculation, STPM, Asasi Sains, Fundamental Study and Diploma. This is an effort to enhance students' mathematics fundamentals knowledge which is required in pursuing undergraduate engineering study.
Acknowledgement
We would like to thank UKM for providing the research grant (PTS-2011-020).
References
Adamson, J., & Clifford, H. (2002). An appraisal of A-level and university examination results for engineering undergraduates. International
Journal of Mechanical Engineering Education, 30(4), 265-279.
Alfan, E., & Othman, M.N. (2005). Undergraduate students’ performance: The case of University of Malaya, Quality Assurance in Education, 13(4), 329-343.
Goldfinch, J., & Hughes, M. (2007). Skills, learning styles and success of first-year undergraduates, Active Learning in Higher Education, 8(3), 259-273.
Hill, H.C., Rowan, B., & Ball, D.l. (2005). Effects of teachers’ mathematical knowledge for teaching on student achievement. American
Educational Research Journal, 42(2), 371-406.
Hoyles, C., Newman, K, & Noss, R. (2001). Changing patterns of transition from school to University Mathematics. International Journal of
Mathematical Education in Science and Technology, 32(6), 829-845.
Lawson, D. (1997). What can we expect from A-level mathematics students?, Teaching Mathematics And Its Applications, 16(4), 151-156. Lawson, D. (2000). Vocational education as preparation for university engineering mathematics, Engineering Science And Education Journal,
9(2), 89-92.
Lawson, D. (2003), Changes in student entry competencies 1991-2001, Teaching Mathematics and its Applications, 22(4), 171-175.
Othman, H., Nopiah, Z.M., Asshaari, I., Razali, N., Osman, M.H., & Ramli, H. (2009). A comparative study of engineering students on their Pre-University results with their first year performance at FKAB, UKM. Prosiding Seminar Pendidikan Kejuruteraan & Alam Bina (PeKA09), 289-300.
Pyle, I. (2001). Mathematics in school. Engineering Science and Education Journal, 170-171.
Sazhin, S.S. (1998). Teaching mathematics to engineering students, International Journal of Engineering Education, 14, 145-152.
Stephen, L., Harrison, M., Pell, G., & Robison, C. (2008). Predicting performance of first year engineering students and the importance of assessment tools therein. Engineering Education, 3(1), 44-51.
Tang, H.E., Voon, L.L., & Julaihi, N.H. (2009). A case study of ‘High-Failure Rate’ mathematics courses and its’ contributing factors on UiTM Sarawak diploma students. Paper presented at the Conference on Scientific & Social Research, 14-15 March 2009.
Todd, K.L. (2001). An historical study of the correlation between G.C.E. advanced level grades and the subsequent academic performance of well qualified students in a university engineering department. Mathenatics TODAY, 37(5), 152-156.
Zainuri, N.A., Nopiah, Z.M., Razali, N., Asshaari, I. & Othman, H. (2009). The study on the weaknesses of mathematical foundation in the first year engineering students, UKM, Prosiding Seminar Pendidikan Kejuruteraan & Alam Bina (PeKA09), 226-233.
