Examining the Role of Mathematics in the IT Curriculum

Thurs 9th October, 2:30pm

What is the role of mathematics within the IT curriculum? Should mathematics be taught at all? Do students need calculus? What mathematics do students need to learn? The ACM/IEEE Computer Science Curricula 2013 (CS2013) was released in December 2013 to provide guidelines and curricula direction to a wide variety of institutions throughout the world. It contains specific recommendations for the teaching of mathematics. This paper reviews our mathematics curriculum against the CS2013 recommendations and the needs of our students. Our curriculum is outlined and examples of content and approach are discussed against the ACM recommendations. The review has validated our provision of a broad rich mathematical experience that is relevant and applied to careers in the IT industry.

About Joy Gasson

Joy Gasson teaches mathematics and programming in the Bachelor of Information Technology programme at Otago Polytechnic. She has also worked as a secondary school teacher, curriculum facilitator and commercial programmer. Her research interests are centred on informing and expanding her teaching practice.