Cross-disciplinary Teaching of Mathematics

In this paper we describe findings from the literature on cross-disciplinary teaching of mathematics to undergraduates, as part of a review of cross-faculty teaching of science subjects at the University of Technology, Sydney. Disciplinary differences in teaching styles can inform difficulties faced by engineering and business students. The necessity for varied teaching approaches was illuminated by differences in learning styles among students. For mathematics, a common theme is optimising presentation to engineering students, with general agreement on the need for relevance; a concept which is also raised regarding teaching statistics to business students. Innovations include the development of courses based on interdisciplinary teaching approaches, with discussions focusing on course revisions.