Abstrait

A Study on the causes for aversion to mathematics by engineering students using Fuzzy Cognitive Maps (FCMs)

A.Praveen Prakash, Esther Jerlin J , Bennilo Fernandes J

The quality of teaching and learning mathematics has been one of the major challenges and concern of the educators. Mathematics is often considered as a subject that a student either understand or doesn�t, with little in between. In reality, mathematics comprises of wide variety of skills and concepts. Mathematics education should enable engineering students to communicate their ideas in an unambiguous and understandable way and should equip themselves with the analytical skills as practicing engineers. It is a collection of tools that can be used to solve certain well-defined problems. Mathematical thinking and modeling give engineers the ability to approach new problems with confidence. There are around 570 engineering colleges in Tamil Nadu where students show their aversion in learning mathematics and they learn this subject without interest. More number of arrears is kept in this subject compared to other subjects. Students fail to understand the seriousness of this subject. This paper analyses the various causes for the aversion by the engineering students in learning mathematics given by the teachers using Fuzzy Cognitive Map (FCM) model.