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The mathematical components of engineering expertise: the relationship between doing and understanding mathematics

For a number of years, the Mathematical Sciences group at the Institute of Education has been carrying out research studies on the mathematical aspects of professional practice, looking at investment bank employees, aviation pilots, paediatric nurses and, in the research we describe here, civil and structural engineers. What emerged was a pattern of mathematics-in-use in which the mathematics of school was transformed into something rather different; numerical calculations, for example, were not just about quantities, but part of a social practice involving things; numerical relations were seen to be a part of the properties of objects rather than representations of the quantities involved. The authors undertook an extensive programme of interviews and observations in a large engineering design consultancy in London, focusing on the work of civil and structural engineers and how they apply maths. The authors attempt to answer the questions which arose: what is it that gets "applied", and how is it transformed in application? and how do individuals and the communities of which they are a part, think about the mathematics involved, and how does it shape their thinking about the tools and objects of engineering design? (7 pages)