Contextual questions and their implications for engineering undergraduates’ attitudes towards mathematics

When teaching mathematics to undergraduate engineers, questions may be written in an abstract, mathematical way or in an engineering context. Existing mathematics modules for engineers vary widely in this regard, with contextualisation integral to some modules but entirely absent from others. Contextual questions are generally considered to be beneficial for students’ motivation to study mathematics, which is often problematically low, as they emphasise the relevance of mathematics for engineering. However, contextual questions are also difficult and time-consuming for service-teaching mathematicians to create in large quantities, without the questions becoming contrived or irrelevant. In this study, I consider a compromise in which small numbers of contextual questions are incorporated into mathematics modules for undergraduate engineers. I investigate the implications of this for students’ interest in and motivation to study mathematics. I find that even a small number of such questions can improve students’ attitudes towards mathematics and that students also overwhelmingly favour the inclusion of at least some contextual questions in their mathematics modules. I therefore suggest that it is not enough for students to see applications of mathematics in engineering-specific modules later in their course, but that they should ideally also be exposed to contextual problems when learning mathematical skills.