Browsing by Subject "Mathematics curriculum"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3

Open Access
Mathematical knowledge and skills expected by higher education in engineering and the social sciences: implications for high school mathematics curriculum
(International Society of Educational Research, 2015-03-25) Başaran, M.; Özalp, G.; Kalender, İ.; Alacacı, C.
One important function of school mathematics curriculum is to prepare high school students with the knowledge and skills needed for university education. Identifying them empirically will help making sound decisions about the contents of high school mathematics curriculum. It will also help students to make informed choices in course selection at high school. In this study, we surveyed university faculty members who teach first year university students about the mathematical knowledge and skills that they would like to see in incoming high school graduates. Data were collected from 122 faculty members from social science (history, law, psychology) and engineering departments (electrical/electronics and computer engineering). Participants were asked to indicate which high school mathematics topics and skills they thought were important to be successful at university education in their field. Results were compared across social science and engineering departments. Implications were drawn for curriculum specialists, students, and mathematics educators.
Open Access
Real world connections in high school mathematics curriculum and teaching
(2012-05) Karakoç, Gökhan
The effectiveness of real world connections (RWC) in teaching is well accepted in the mathematics education community, however, little research has attended how and why to use RWC in mathematics. Additionally, there is a perception that the use of these connections is utilized less than its potential in the Turkish high school mathematics curriculum. Many would argue that development of students’ basic mathematical skills and the use of these skills in solving real life problems appear to be among the primary purposes of mathematics education. It can be inferred that teaching mathematics in a real world context may have a valuable place for achieving these purposes of education. This study described the feasibility of the use of RWCs in mathematics lessons as perceived by the teachers and academics (experts, n=24). In other words, experts’ opinions about advantages, disadvantages and examples of RWCs suggested by the experts were reported, using the Delphi method in two rounds. In the first round, an open-ended questionnaire to explore the subject was sent to the participants and their answers were used to create a second round Likert scale to reach a consensus. Experts suggested that the use of RWCs in mathematics lessons improves students’ motivation and interest in mathematics, helps students gain a positive attitude to mathematics, raises awareness of occupational fields where mathematics is used, helps development of conceptual learning, and mathematical process skills. The results of this study can be of interest to curriculum developers, teachers and teacher educators.
Open Access
A survey of high school mathematical knowledge and skills needed for engineering education
(2013) Başaran, Mehmet
The focus of the study is to explore if there is a difference among the engineering departments based on the topics and skills that students are expected to gain in high school, by investigating importance levels of the topics and skills. For the purpose of identifying importance levels mathematical topics and skills, university staffs with different academic ranks from different universities were asked with a questionnaire including Likert scale items to express their opinions about topics and skills in high school mathematics curricula of both National Curriculum and International Baccalaureate Diploma Program (IBDP). The main conclusion drawn from present study were that packaged curricula for specific engineering departments in university can be designed for high schools and the core topics required for engineering departments should be included in earlier grade levels. Besides, some topics from IBDP should be considered to be added to Ministry of National Education (MoNE) curriculum.