A Didactic Sequence for a Meaningful Learning of Linear

Functions in Engineering Education

Bruna C. Boff, Ivete A. S. Booth, Laurete Z. Sauer and Valquíria Villas-Boas
University of Caxias do Sul, Caxias do Sul, RS, Brazil
brucboff@gmail.com; iasbooth@gmail.com; lzsauer@ucs.br; vvillasboas@yahoo.com

Abstract: In many countries, an expressive number of students with difficulties in

mathematics chose engineering programs and, for that reason, the number of
failures and dropouts are outrageous. This work has as its main purpose the
elaboration of a didactic sequence, its application and the evaluation of its
contribution to the occurrence of meaningful learning of concepts related to linear
functions. The didactic sequence is based on the theory of meaningful learning,
that is, it is a potentially meaningful teaching unit. This didactic sequence was
applied to some students of the precalculus course, of the engineering programs
of the University of Caxias do Sul. Preliminary results showed that the potentially
meaningful teaching unit had a relevant contribution, and it was a methodological
strategy with the potential to promote meaningful learning, reduce evasion and
increase retention rates in the context of engineering education.

Introduction
In engineering programs, it is possible to identify, on the basis of the performance analysis in
the evaluations, the number of failures, dropout and retention rates, and data from the
application of diagnostic evaluations, an expressive number of students with difficulties in
mathematics. Such difficulties are complicating, sometimes hindering, following studies in
mathematics courses and others that use mathematical knowledge. They lead to
discouragement, because they generate anguish and a sense of inability to learn, causing
low performances of students in engineering programs. These difficulties hamper
achievement in other disciplines, which justifies the relevance of research on issues related
to the teaching and learning processes of mathematics in the initial stages of engineering
courses (Armstrong & Croft, 1999; Soares, Lima, & Sauer, 2004; Araújo et al., 2007; Gill,
O’Donoghue, Faulkner, & Hannigan, 2010; Carr, Bowe, & Fhloinn, 2013; Carr et al., 2014;
Sonnert, & Sadler, 2014; Nite et al., 2015).
The National Curricular Guidelines for Engineering courses (BRASIL, 2002), as well as
INOVA Engenharia (CNI, 2006) and “Rising above the gathering storm” published by the
Committee on Prospering in the Global Economy (CPGE, 2007), propose that future
engineers be capable of conceiving, designing, analyzing systems, products and processes;
planning, supervising, conducting experiments, interpreting results, working in
multidisciplinary teams, communicating effectively, evaluating the economic viability of
projects and the impact of engineering activities in the social and environmental context.
Engineering instructors, in general, need to consider innovative pedagogical actions in their
courses, designing and implementing new proposals for the processes of teaching and
learning. According to Booth and Villas-Boas (2014), teaching in many engineering schools
is still synonymous with presenting information. In this conception of education, the
instructor’s action is focused on content exposure, and students are listeners. In this sense, it
is important in the current scenario, to provide a groundwork for studies and actions to
enable changes of this paradigm.

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Given these needs, what strategies and methods have the potential to develop skills required
for future engineers? What aspects of teaching mediation need to be present in learning
environments when the focus is on the occurrence of meaningful learning?
Teaching and learning processes, consistent with this trend, need to be increasingly focused
on students' actions in situations that favor interaction, collaboration, knowledge exchange
and the development of meaningful learning (Ausubel, 2012). Learning strategies, using
didactic sequences (also known as teaching-learning sequences), understood as planned,
tested and analyzed sets of activities, can be a favorable means for knowledge acquisition.
Potentially significant teaching units (PMTU) (Moreira, 2011), which are didactic sequences
that consist of activities that intend to enable the student to develop new knowledge to deal
adequately with reality, seem to be a viable path.
In this context, the PMTU presents a dynamic mechanism of intervention that considers the
needs of the students presented during the activities. And one of the instructor’s roles is to
organize learning situations, with varied materials and activities aimed at achieving learning
objectives. To do so, it is necessary to plan the teaching process, organizing and
coordinating actions for the instructor and the students, evaluating the process, articulating
activities and diagnosing new needs so that it is possible to achieve learning objectives.
In view of these considerations, this paper reports an experiment about the construction,
application and analysis of a didactic sequence in the occurrence of meaningful learning of
concepts related to linear functions in the daily life of engineering students. The didactic
sequence was proposed as a potentially meaningful teaching unit (PMTU), focusing on
meaningful learning and based on the contributions of Ausubel (2012) and Moreira (2006,
2011), among others.
The theoretical framework, methodological course, results and discussion are presented
below, as well as some final remarks.

Theoretical Framework
Studies by educational researchers such as Fry, Ketteridge and Marshall (2015), Demo
(2014), Carvalho (2011), Moreira (2011), Biggs and Tang (2011), Zabala and Arnau (2010),
Barr and Tagg (1995) have contributed to the discussion of important issues about the role of
education and fundamented ways of conducting the teaching and learning processes. These
same researchers point out the need to transform learning environments into privileged
spaces of articulation between theory and practice and of a multiplicity of experience.
According to ASEE (2012), many engineering schools can improve student retention by
changing the way they currently operate and adopting best practices and strategies for
retaining students. One solution would be to take a "holistic" approach to improving retention,
pursuing multiple strategies rather than focusing on one approach.
Problematic situations are indicated as having the potential to generate meaningful learning
in teaching and learning activities to compose didactic sequences. Firme, Ribeiro and
Barbosa (2008) emphasize their importance for evoking contextualised teaching, with
problematic situations related to real contexts, both socially and environmentally, thus
bringing the engineering students closer to the problems that will be faced in the profession.
The didactic sequences are based on the theoretical bases of teaching-learning sequences
by Méheut and Psillos (2004).
These authors emphasize that didactic sequences aid in the learning process, since it is
possible to observe a better performance of students compared to those who had more
traditional teaching approaches. Problematic situations allow contextualized questioning and
with different dimensions such as: teaching objectives, varied resources, real problems,
experimental activities, and technological, environmental and socio-cultural issues, among
others. These actions are strategic to develop new skills, with the purpose of making the

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teaching process an instrument of human construction committed to the needs of the future
engineer and the society.
Zabala (1998) and Zabala and Arnau (2010) emphasize that in order to understand the
educational value of a didactic sequence, and the reasons that justify it, it is necessary to
identify its stages, defining activities and the relationships that are established in this space
of design. With the intention of contributing to this new educational scenario, the proposal for
the construction of the PMTU appears (Moreira, 2011).
They have guiding principles such as: identification of previous knowledge or subsumers,
previous organizers, problematic situations, progressive differentiation, integrative
reconciliation and consolidation. The evaluation is understood as the search for evidence
and the role of the teacher is that of a mediator, focused on the acquisition of meanings
aimed at non-mechanical learning, and, consequently, have a greater potential for success in
the occurrence of meaningful learning (Moreira, 2011).
Uhmann and Zanon (2013) emphasize that the instructor can act as a regulating guide to
learning, using teaching strategies, such as conceptual maps, until the student develops
greater cognitive capacity in learning activities. According to Lopes (2007), learning
difficulties seem to relate to each other by the way content is selected, developed, organized
and planned. In this sense, it is relevant to rethink the curricular organization of contents of
engineering programs, as well as, the pedagogical strategies and methods, in an attempt to
create conditions for meaningful learning and to increase retention rates in these courses.

Methodology
In this research work, a didactic sequence was proposed as a PMTU and applied in a group
of students of the precalculus course of the engineering programs of the University of Caxias
do Sul. The University of Caxias do Sul (UCS) is a community university in the southermost
Brazilian state and the city of Caxias do Sul is the second metalurgical center in the country.
This combination leads to a population of students that is mostly composed of people
employed in the industries of the region and seeking engineering degrees.
In the first phase of the research, a diagnostic questionnaire was delivered on the first day of
class to the forty-nine students, to be answered at home and was collected in the next class.
The questionnaire contained questions about student personal data and contextualized
questions about linear functions. Upon returning the diagnostic questionnaire, an invitation
was made for everyone to participate in the second phase of the research.
It was explained to the students that, in the second phase, a PMTU would be applied, with
practical activities and would be accompanied by one of the researchers, aiming at learning
linear functions. It was also clarified that the activity would be without cost, and it would yield
complementary hours and would be held according to an extracurricular schedule, with
biweekly meetings on Saturday mornings. Of the forty-nine invited students, only five
enrolled to participate in the PMTU. Its development began three weeks after the beginning
of the precalculus course.
Three problematic situations, involving the linear functions, in increasing order of difficulty,
made up the PMTU. Each problem was worked out in a 3-hour meeting, namely:
(i) First Meeting:
At the beginning of the first meeting, students were asked to construct a conceptual map on
linear functions based on what they have learned in high school and in the precalculus
course, in order to evaluate their subsumers and select the next material to be used in the
meetings. Then, in the physics laboratory, the students conducted an experiment on Ohm's
law. With the data obtained, they constructed electric voltage graphs as a function of the
electric current and were able to determine the relationship between these physical
quantities.

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After the experiment, a short lecture was conducted on linear functions, formalizing the
concept and its various representations. The mastery of a field of knowledge, as well as the
occurrence of meaningful learning, is progressive. Thus, the purpose of the PMTU is the
evolution of student learning throughout the process. Aiming at progressive differentiation
and integrative reconciliation (Ausubel, 2012), at the end of the first meeting, a list of eight
exercises on linear functions was proposed and solved by the participants. Six of these
exercises involved contextualized engineering issues.
(ii) Second Meeting:
The second meeting began in the chemistry laboratory, where an experiment was carried out
on the solubility of urea in water. With the data obtained, the students constructed graphs of
density as a function of the quantity of urea and could determine that the phenomenon was
described by a linear function with y-intercept. After the experiment, a short lecture was held
on linear function with y-intercept, formalizing the concept and its various representations. A
list of exercises, contextualized with the engineering area, was also proposed at the end of
the second meeting.
(iii) Third Meeting:
In the third meeting, a uniformly accelerated motion experiment was carried out using the
apps: the “Calculation of velocity as a function of time” from Microsoft and “Fiza”, an
application to simulate motion with constant acceleration (free app available on the Android
Play Store system). In this meeting, the concept of speed as a function of time was explored
through algebraic, numerical, verbal and graphical approaches, which allowed the students
to relate this concept to that of a linear function. Following this, aiming at integrative
reconciliation and consolidation of knowledge, one of the researchers recapitulated the main
elements of the linear function, followed by a final summative evaluation and the construction
of a second conceptual map on linear functions.

Results and Discussion

In this section, the main evidence that the PMTU showed potential for the occurrence of
meaningful learning by the students who participated in the activity are presented. The
conceptual maps elaborated by the students and the results of the initial diagnostic
evaluation and the final summative evaluation are presented in this section.

About the Conceptual Maps:

Many researchers have studied the potential of conceptual maps as a tool for evaluation,
organization of knowledge and meaningful learning in higher education and engineering
education (Vega-Riveros, Marciales-Vivas, & Martínez-Melo, 1998; Turns, Atman, & Adams,
2000; Darmofal, Soderholm, & Brodeur, 2002; Hay, Kinchin, & Lygo‐Baker, 2008; Souza, &
Boruchovitch, 2010; Piá, Blasco-Tamarit, & Muñoz-Portero, 2011; Moreira, 2013; Fang,
2015; Fang, 2016).
In a conceptual map, the concepts contextually more important are indicated by arrows,
which are related to secondary or specific concepts. The student presents his map and the
important thing is not whether the map is correct or not, but rather if it provides evidence that
the student is learning the content meaningfully (Moreira, 2013).
In this work, conceptual maps were used as an evaluation tool to highlight the knowledge
built by the students throughout the application of the PMTU. The conceptual maps were
analyzed according to the topological taxonomy for conceptual maps of Cañas and co-
workers (2006).
Comparing the conceptual maps constructed by the students in the first meeting and in the
third meeting, it was possible to observe that there was a growing evolution in the ideas

4
represented in them. As an example, in Figure 1, the maps prepared by Student 2 are
presented.
It is observed in these maps that Student 2 brings in his cognitive structure some previous
knowledge about the concept of linear function. This knowledge is arranged in simple
branches, connected directly to the main concept "linear function”. In the conceptual map
constructed by Student 2 at the end of the third meeting, it is possible to observe the
association of new branches connected to the main concept, which denotes an advance in
the number of interconnections of new concepts.

Figure 1 – Initial and final conceptual maps constructed by Student 2.

It is also possible to observe the establishment of explicit relations between the new and
existing knowledge. This change in the number of relations between concepts in the
construction of these maps denotes a reorganization of the student's cognitive structure, a
characteristic of the process of integrative reconciliation that, according to Ausubel (2012),
occurs in the course of meaningful learning.
According to the topological taxonomy for conceptual maps of Cañas and co-workers (2006),
the initial map obtained level zero, while the final map obtained level 6 (on a scale of 0 to 6),
proving that there was an acquisition of meanings about the subject studied in the PMTU.
Although the second map still presents some incorrect information such as considering the
independent variable "b" and the dependent variable "m", whereas they should be
respectively "x" and "y", it is evident that there was meaningful learning.
The initial and final conceptual maps on linear functions produced by the other three students
were also evaluated and they also presented evidence of the occurrence of meaningful
learning for these students.
Initial elements in the cognitive structure (subsumers), with some degree of differentiation,
after the application of the PMTU, are now seen in a related way, acquiring new meanings.
Thus, in this movement, concepts that previously belonged to different branches of the main
concept begin to relate, providing a reconciliation, a connection between them, that was not
previously observable.
This dynamic movement in which concepts and propositions, already existing in the cognitive
structure, undergo reorganizations and acquire new meanings and more comprehensive
concepts, is characteristic of the occurrence of meaningful learning.

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About the initial diagnostic evaluation and the final summative evaluation
The initial diagnostic evaluation and the final summative evaluation were also used to search
for evidence of the knowledge constructed by students during the application of the PMTU.
These assessments were carried out individually, in order to obtain a more realistic analysis
of the conceptions of each student. The range of application of these instruments was of ten
weeks, during which the activities programmed for the PMTU were carried out. The
summative evaluation consisted of all questions of the diagnostic evaluation, in addition to
some questions worked out in first and second meetings.
One defined criterion was that the issues of diagnostic evaluation were not discussed at
subsequent meetings, nor were any comments made on its resolution. The investigation of
the occurrence of conceptual evolution was made through an analysis of the students'
responses to the set of open questions.
In Figure 2, the results of the diagnostic and summative evaluations of the four students who
completed all the activities proposed in the PMTU are presented.
The analysis of the evaluations was qualitative, with descriptive statistics. The distribution of
students' answers to each question, both in the initial and final evaluations, was verified in
order to make a comparison of the conceptual evolution between the before and after the
application of the PMTU.
Analyzing the data presented in Figure 2, it is possible to observe an increase in the
percentage of students' correct answers regarding the content of the function studied when
compared to the results of the initial diagnostic evaluation. These results show evidence of a
meaningful learning in relation to the contents worked during the implementation of the
PMTU.

Figure 2 – Results of the initial diagnostic evaluation and the final summative evaluation

In relation to the high comparative indices, between the final and the initial evaluations of
students 2 and 5 with a score of 37.8% and 47.1% respectively, it is possible to affirm that
there occurred a substantive and non-arbitrary relationship of the students with the new

6
information and the existing subsumers in their respective cognitive structures which favored
a process of learning with more meaning.
These results show that the PMTU, based on the Meaningful Learning Theory (Ausubel,
2012; Moreira, 2011), favored students' learning. Thus we can affirm that the students
mobilized knowledge acquired in new situations, different from those in which the diagnostic
evaluation occurred.
As a consequence of the analysis of the conceptual maps and the results obtained in the
initial diagnostic evaluation and the final summative evaluation, it is possible to confirm the
occurrence of the reconstruction of students' knowledge, highlighting the conceptual
extension and their relations through the contact with diverse materials developed by the
researchers, considering the student as the main subject of learning process. Uhmann and
Zanon (2014) emphasize that the instructor can act as a guide regulator of the learning
process, using evaluative strategies of teaching, until the student develops greater cognitive
capacity in the learning activities.
Although this article reports on a small scale study, since the evidence on student learning is
limited because only a few students completed the PMTU, it is observed that the work
carried out through this PMTU on linear functions was able to assist in the reconstruction of
students' knowledge and that the PMTU is a pedagogical strategy that has the potential to
attend the students in an integral manner, giving account of their needs and creating the
conditions for a meaningful learning. For a comparison, a study carried out by Sonnert and
Sadler (2014), where they examined student performance in college calculus, using
regression discontinuity to estimate the effects of taking college pre-calculus or not, in a
national US sample of 5507 students at 132 institutions, showed that students who take a
regular college pre-calculus course do not earn higher calculus grades.
Nite et al. (2015) reported on a personalized precalculus program (PPP) that includes an
online study plan with practice problems in common areas of difficulty in algebra and
trigonometry and required online tutoring sessions for 30 hours over a six-week period. PPP
students taking Engineering Calculus I in their first semester did not perform as well in terms
of grades as those taking it in the second semester. In fact, according to Nite et al. (2015),
“any pre-college program can contribute to leveling the playing field, if only by allowing
students more time to adjust to the differences college life offers and providing them a
glimpse of the expectations in college courses”. The difference between the proposal
reported in this article and that from Nite et al. (2015) is that this proposal relies on the
diagnosis of students’ subsumers and in the use of problematic situations of Engineering,
instead of conventional math exercises.
In view of these considerations, it is evident the importance of teaching proposals that aim to
improve the learning process, since teaching is the means and the meaningful learning must
be the end (Moreira, 2011). In other words, this proposal offers a promising way to engage
students in contrast to the traditional precalculus courses.

Final Remarks
Believing in the potential of a PMTU for the acquisition of meanings and in the occurrence of
a meaningful learning of concepts related to the linear function, this investigation sought to
show possibilities or limitations in the use of new pedagogical strategies. The PMTU
elaborated for this study proved to be a strategy with great potential in the context of the
calculus courses in the initial stages of the engineering programs. The experience described
and analyzed is still small, but indicated that PMTU is an important pedagogical resource.
Also noteworthy is the ease with which students deal with the technological resources (apps
and software) that can quickly be obtained and installed on their own smartphones or
notebooks. Allied to this, the use of such resources, available today, to illustrate and
contextualize real situations, is one of the factors responsible for the motivation to learn. In

7
the three meetings, the analyses and discussions of the experiments were enriched with the
construction and exploitation of graphs, using free software.
The aspects involved in this process of teaching and learning with a PMTU do not allow us a
conclusive position on an application of the Meaningful Learning Theory, but a feasible
possibility of improvement in the teaching performance in engineering programs
This study is not a complete analysis of the examined phenomenon, but with the results
obtained, it was possible to show that PMTU has the potential to promote meaningful
learning, reduce evasion and increase retention rates. It is hoped that this work will serve as
an inspiration to offer an alternative pedagogical strategy for the occurrence of meaningful
learning in engineering education.

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