With a team of experts from four continents, I led the development of a newly published special issue of IEEE Transactions on Education on the “Conceptual Learning of Mathematics-Intensive Concepts in Engineering.” The issue has nine articles covering three categories: assessment, instruction, and learning.

If you teach mathematics concepts to engineering students, you’ll definitely want to check it out!

On assessment, you can discover principles for designing rubrics. Regarding instruction, you can learn (a) how textbooks differ in their explanations of differential equations and (b) how concept maps can support the transfer of learning. You can read about (c) integrating real-life engineering examples into mathematics education, (d) using e-Textbooks, and (e) using software to help students bridge the gap between procedural skills and conceptual understanding of the Laplace transform. On the theme of learning, find out how to overcome misconceptions regarding (a) Stoke’s theorem, (b) exact differentials, and (c) sample mean.

I served as the organizational lead, and endeavored to support my team in learning journal-editing skills. Dr Farrah Fayyaz (working from Canada) served as the project’s conceptual lead. Dr Anita Campbell (South Africa), Dr Nicole Pitterson (USA), and Dr Sadia Nawaz (Australia) were also instrumental in producing such a high quality compilation.

As described in our guest editorial for this special issue, our leadership team implemented a range of innovative, collaborative models for capacity- and community-building while shepherding this project from conception to completion. My own focus was on cultivating these models, as mathematics education is not a primary focus of mine (although it is for the other four editors). The capacity-building model, and the recommendations for IEEE and other editors of special issues that are included in the guest editorial, were my primary contributions with this project, and a source of pride and joy for me.

I look forward to the future compilations that Farrah, Anita, Nicole, and Sadia will curate. Together, the editorial team hopes to read many more articles in this cutting-edge realm of research, and watch the ongoing success of the authors who participated in our capacity- and community-building activities.

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