Should Mathematics Be A Mandatory Fundamental Component Of Any IT Discipline?

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate whether and how mathematics factors into students’ performance in IT learning. The involved cognitive levels of students learning mathematics and hence problem solving, are correlated to how well they are able to transpose their knowledge and apply it to problem solving in the IT field(s). Our hypothesis is that if students perform better in mathematics, in terms of level of mathematics course and grade earned in that course prior to engaging in IT studies, their performance in IT will also be higher. The performance of several groups of students, over a period of five semesters are collected, analyzed and the correlation between mathematics learning ability and that of IT is measured, analyzed, and the results are reported and therefore the hypothesis is tested.