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Teaching Mathematics and its Applications Advance Access originally published online on July 16, 2007
Teaching Mathematics and its Applications 2007 26(3):111-118; doi:10.1093/teamat/hrm007
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© The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Institute of Mathematics and its Applications. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Recent changes in A-level Mathematics: is the availability and uptake of mechanics declining yet more?

Stephen Lee, Martin C. Harrison and Carol L. Robinson

Stephen Lee, Mathematics Education Centre, Loughborough University, Leicestershire LE11 3TU, UK. E-mail: stephen.lee{at}mei.org.uk, c.l.robinson{at}lboro.ac.uk, m.c.harrison{at}lboro.ac.uk

  Abstract

In the past 6 years changes have occurred in GCE A-levels. In particular, there have been several major changes in A-level Mathematics courses. As engineering students are usually required to have studied A-level Mathematics, or its equivalent, these changes have had an effect on their prior mathematical knowledge. Moreover, engineering students traditionally obtained a good grounding in mechanics as part of their A-level Mathematics qualification. However, mechanics, which was once included in the core syllabus, is now optional. This article investigates the current availability and uptake of mechanics modules within A-level Mathematics courses in schools. Comparisons are drawn between these results and results of a survey of schools in 2004 and surveys of first year engineering students conducted in 2004 and 2005. It is found that there is a decline in the availability of mechanics modules and the uptake of more than one mechanics module has also decreased. The implications of these findings for engineering educators are discussed.

Received April 2006. Accepted April 2007.


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