INNOVATIVE UPDATING OF MATHEMATICAL KNOWLEDGE FOR UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS IN TECHNOLOGICAL SPECIALTIES

Abstract

The harmonization of domestic higher education with the latest international ISCED-F standards and the updated list of specialties demands a systemic transformation of the core curriculum content. This challenge is particularly acute for a group of essentially modernized technological specialties, including H1 “Agronomy”, H7 “Agricultural Engineering”, J8 “Automotive Engineering”, and G3 “Electrical Engineering”. The common denominator in undergraduate training for these fields is that the objects of professional activity themselves have made a radical technological leap in recent years. The study applied a systemic analysis of educational standards, diagnostic entry-level testing of firstyear students, and a method of interdisciplinary consulting between mathematics faculty and departments of general engineering and specialized graduating departments. Based on a comparative analysis, a matrix for modernizing curricular content and training focus was developed for innovative technological specialties. Using the “Automotive Engineering” specialty as a case study, the necessity of updating the mathematical knowledge of undergraduate students based on a STEM approach was theoretically substantiated. Empirically, a profound cognitive and motivational crisis was documented among incoming students, manifesting in fragmented knowledge, weak computational skills, and a destructive decline in interest toward studying higher mathematics. It is noted that effective curricular content design is possible only under conditions of close interdepartmental collaboration, which results in a transition from routine analytical operations to computer-based STEM modeling. For the practical implementation of this approach and to resolve motivational issues, a didactic matrix for the STEM-oriented updating of undergraduate mathematical knowledge was developed. This matrix provides for the differentiation of applied case studies into the engineering (design and technology) and logistical (organizational and management) tracks of J8, utilizing educational and professional ICT tools. Prospects for further research lie in projecting the proposed didactic aspects onto the modernization of educational programs in agronomic, agricultural engineering, and electrical engineering fields.