Developing skeptical reverence for mathematics

Abstract

In a prior study of civil engineers, I identified a hybrid disposition towards mathematics that I termed skeptical reverence: a balance between seeing mathematics as an indispensible tool and understanding its limitations. The current study investigates how engineers develop their perspective on the relationship between mathematics and engineering and this disposition of skeptical reverence. Ten students (2-3 at each of the four years of an undergraduate program) and two new engineers were interviewed twice each; the students also participated in individual "think-aloud" problem-solving sessions, in which they worked on an assigned problem set from a target course and verbalized their thinking and problem-solving strategies. I used qualitativedata-analysis methods to characterize the students' mathematical dispositions and their movement towards fully developed skeptical reverence. © 2012 American Society for Engineering Education.