Abstract
Engineering education tends to be more and more attractive to Russian students in response to the growing demands of the labor market in this area. However, there is a serious problem of high percentage of drop-outs during first year of study in STEM courses (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) and mathematical disciplines are the most typical reason for that. This problem is addressed by international TEMPUS project MetaMath whose aim is modernization of the Russian education system in accordance with international trends and Russia's cultural and educational traditions as well as needs of business and industry. The purpose of this chapter is to describe research results and analysis of modernization experience of educational programs based on the produced methodology.
TopThe Attitude Of Students Towards Mathematics
As mentioned above, all students of engineering programs in Russian universities have a significant number of mathematical disciplines in the early years of their education. As part of the research several sociological surveys among the students, teachers, employers and graduates were conducted to determine their attitude towards mathematics.
Key Terms in this Chapter
TEMPUS: The TEMPUS (Trans-European Mobility Programme for University Studies) program encourages higher education institutions in the EU Member States and partner countries to engage in structured cooperation.
SEFI: The largest organization for engineering education in Europe. An acronym for its French name, Société Européenne pour la Formation des Ingénieurs.
Labor Functions: An activity that is performed by a person occupying a certain position in the staff list of the enterprise and possessing a specific skill level.
Bologna Process: A series of ministerial meetings and agreements between European countries to ensure comparability in the standards and quality of higher-education qualifications.
FSES: Federal state educational standard – a set of mandatory requirements for education of a certain level and (or) to the profession, specialty and direction of training.
STEM: A term that refers to the academic disciplines of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.