Active, Topic-centered Learning

Abstract It is well known that active learning techniques involve students in their own learning and there is no doubt about their effectiveness. However, each technique is suitable for certain kinds of courses. Therefore, in this paper, we present a novel active learning methodology to teach engineering mathematics courses, called Topic Centered Learning (TCL). Our approach relies on (i) a clever and meticulous session to session segmentation of each of the topics that need to be covered in the course; (ii) design of problem solving sessions minimizing the time invested on lectures (a hands on experience); and (iii) link between mathematics and engineering is reinforced via short projects. All the details of the afore presented methodology are also discussed. In order to test our methodology, we use it to teach an integral calculus course with a sample of 200 students. We measure the students’ understanding of each of the topics of the course and compare it with the results of previous years. In summary, the average midterms grades and their rate of approval improved significantly, compared with the previous four years. Note that all the exams’ rates of approval, obtained using the proposed methodology, are above 60%.