PREREQUISITE COURSES AND RETENTIVITY AS A CHALLENGE

摘要

A recurring problem for teachers of engineering mechanics is that many students sign up to start their courses when they are not quite ready for them. This situation of unreadiness may be due to lack of adequate preparation. At first, it is easy to want to ascribe the problem to lack of coverage of pertinent material in the prerequisite course(s). However, the more likely cause is an amazing amnesia that leaves the students with very few of the important concepts learned in the prerequisite courses that are needed for the mechanics course that they are about to start. This phenomenon is observed even among some of the best students who get top grades in the prerequisite courses by demonstrating mastery of the material, but then "draw a blank" when it comes time to apply that material in a subsequent course. This paper explores the problem of unreadiness and the effectiveness of taking time to strengthen students' prerequisite knowledge in a course using sophomore and junior mechanics classes.