FRAMEWORK FOR FAULT DETECTION AND ERROR ANALYSIS OF ENGINEERING STUDENTS IN SOLVING DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS: BAFT MODELING

Mathematics has a special place in the quality of engineering education. Engineering depends significantly on the mastery of mathematics and mathematics is the foundation of engineering. This study is focused on the quality of mathematics education of engineering students by identification and classification of engineering students' errors in solving differential equations. 43 engineering student test sheets were studied in the second semester of the 2012 academic year. Students' errors in solving differential equations are considered as one of the causes of mathematics academic failure. The fourstage model, called Baft, is presented as 1-Diagnoses (a differential equation), 2- Call (a good strategy to solve the differential equation), 3- Run (the called strategy) and 4-Review (the implementation of the strategy). As a quasi-experimental design, students' performance in pretest (the midterm exam) and post test (the final exam) are compared. The Diagnoses-errors rate is reduced from 44% to 21%, whereas the percentage of Callerrors increased from 15% to 25%. Percentage of Run-errors and Review-errors have not changed significantly.