An Attempt To Handle The Calculus Problem

For many years now, we have experienced a negative trend concerning the mathematics skill level of our new engineering students. This has been particularly noticeable in the calculus course, which is mandatory for all engineering programs at Jönköping University. To handle this problem, we have made some structural changes to the way we teach the subject, emphasizing the teaching efforts to standard type problems – named ‘A-problems’. A list of categories of such A-problems have been constructed, the purpose of which is to help the student identify the most important ideas and develop the basic skills needed to understand calculus. The students are also given the option to form groups and solve selected problems together and then hand in their solutions for marking. If a group have presented enough correct solutions this grants the group members some bonus points for the final exam, which is divided into two parts where the first one deals entirely with A-problems. During the past few years this way of teaching calculus have been implemented by all math teachers and we are cautiously optimistic concerning the results.