My experience is *anyone* can enjoy and be competent at maths - one of the
greatest and most aesthetic arts.
There seem to be only two reasons why people have difficulty with or dislike
maths:
1. They missed a bit and it was difficult from then on. This can be as
simple as having a week off in primary school
2. They were conditioned by other people to dislike maths.
The solution is often easy - acquire what was missing from someone who
delights in maths.
Best wishes,
Terry
-----Original Message-----
From: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related
research in Design [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Don
Norman
Sent: Monday, 14 January 2013 11:47 PM
To: Dr Terence Love
Subject: Math and Engineering for Designers
Changing the subject line to represent the contents of this discussion
On Sun, Jan 13, 2013 at 8:32 PM, Francois Nsenga <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Perhaps students in Design need a specially related Maths course.
> Perhaps there is a better way to teach Maths to those 'not born
mathematicians'.
>
Thank you Francois.
The worst way to learn math is from a maths professor. Same too for almost
any subject: don't learn it from a professor in the field unless that is
your major.
The best way for designers to learn math, engineering, statistics,
psychology is for the design department to have faculty who are
knowledgable in those topics and to have those faculty teach. This is how
it is often done in many departments - the department has people who
understand the department and what its students need. They then teach that..
Statistics is often taught in the discipline. Psychologists, sociologists,
engineers have their own faculty teach it to students. Engineers often have
their own courses in computer programming, not taught by computer
scientists. (Mind you, the disciplines object, callng senate faculty
meetings and all that. Tough. )
Designers have Arduino, thank goodness.
There are many people on design faculty with training in computer science,
psychology, .... They know what designers need. They are the ones to
figure out the best way to teach.
--
Most professors don't know how to teach. Worse, the emphasis should not be
on teaching, it should be on learning. Professors in a discipline want to be
thorough and rigorous. That's fine for major, but not for non-majors.
I bet many of you have successful case stories you could tell. Tell them.
After we hear them, I bet we could generalize to a universal solution.
Don
Don Norman
Nielsen Norman Group, IDEO Fellow
[log in to unmask] www.jnd.org http://www.core77.com/blog/columns/
Latest book: "Living with Complexity <http://www.jnd.org/books.html#608>"
Revision of "Design of Everyday Things" completed. Pub date Q3 2013
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