Developing teaching of mathematics to engineering students: teacher research, student epistemology and mathematical competence

A research project “Engineering Students Understanding Mathematics” (ESUM) has shown tensions between teachers’ theoretical perspectives and design of teaching and students strategic approach to learning. In my research team we seek to improve our teaching of engineering students and to develop their conceptual understandings of mathematics. Given our findings on student perspectives, and the institutional affordances and constraints, we are exploring a range of resources and teaching approaches using theoretical perspectives of inquiry community, documentational genesis and activity theory.