The Transition From High School Physics To First Year Electrical Engineering: How Well Prepared Are Our Students?

The demand from industry for an increasing number of engineering graduates in New Zealand reflects international concerns and is compounded by a decrease in the size of the well-prepared school-leaver pool. For growth in graduate numbers to occur, it is recognized that a more diverse, potentially less-well-prepared student cohort will challenge engineering educators to respond effectively via curriculum, assessment and teaching methods to optimize success and retention at first year. A preliminary evaluation of the first (2007) cycle of a two-cycle action-research project is presented in this paper. This project aims to identify the level of preparedness the student cohort brings to a year-one course in Electrical and Digital Systems, to determine key factors that lead to success in this course, to measure the effectiveness of remedial and support mechanisms, and to audit the content and assessment of the course itself. The course, compulsory for all first-year engineering students has long been perceived as “difficult”, with a higher fail rate than other first-year courses, and somewhat of a “gatekeeper” for passage to the discipline-specific final three years.