Computer programming in the UK undergraduate mathematics curriculum

This paper reports a study which investigated the extent to which undergraduate mathematics students in the United Kingdom are currently taught to programme a computer as a core part of their mathematics degree programme. We undertook an online survey, with significant follow-up correspondence, to g...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of mathematical education in science and technology Vol. 48; no. 8; pp. 1133 - 1152
Main Authors: Sangwin, Christopher J., O'Toole, Claire
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: London Taylor & Francis 02.11.2017
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects:
Algebra
Computer algebra
Computer programming
Computer Science
Computer Software
Computers
country-specific developments
Curricula
Elective Courses
Followup Studies
Foreign Countries
Functional programming
Information Technology
Logic programming
Mathematical analysis
Mathematics
Mathematics Curriculum
Mathematics Instruction
Microprocessors
National Surveys
Numerical analysis
Online Surveys
Programming
Programming and programming languages
Programming Languages
undergraduate mathematics
Undergraduate Students
United Kingdom
United Kingdom > UK
ISSN:0020-739X, 1464-5211
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Summary:This paper reports a study which investigated the extent to which undergraduate mathematics students in the United Kingdom are currently taught to programme a computer as a core part of their mathematics degree programme. We undertook an online survey, with significant follow-up correspondence, to gather data on current curricula and received replies from 46 (63%) of the departments who teach a BSc mathematics degree. We found that 78% of BSc degree courses in mathematics included computer programming in a compulsory module but 11% of mathematics degree programmes do not teach programming to all their undergraduate mathematics students. In 2016, programming is most commonly taught to undergraduate mathematics students through imperative languages, notably MATLAB, using numerical analysis as the underlying (or parallel) mathematical subject matter. Statistics is a very popular choice in optional courses, using the package R. Computer algebra systems appear to be significantly less popular for compulsory first-year courses than a decade ago, and there was no mention of logic programming, functional programming or automatic theorem proving software. The modal form of assessment of computing modules is entirely by coursework (i.e. no examination).
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ISSN:0020-739X
1464-5211
DOI:10.1080/0020739X.2017.1315186