Undergraduate Students' Mental Operations in Systems of Differential Equations [electronic resource] / Karen Whitehead and Chris Rasmussen.
This paper reports on research conducted to understand undergraduate students' ways of reasoning about systems of differential equations (SDEs). As part of a semester long classroom teaching experiment in a first course in differential equations, we conducted task-based interviews with six stud...
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| Format: | Electronic eBook |
| Language: | English |
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2003.
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| Summary: | This paper reports on research conducted to understand undergraduate students' ways of reasoning about systems of differential equations (SDEs). As part of a semester long classroom teaching experiment in a first course in differential equations, we conducted task-based interviews with six students after their study of first order differential equations and prior to instruction on SDEs in order to obtain baseline data on their conceptual resources for SDEs. Interpretative analysis of the interview data generated the following three themes pertaining to student reasoning in situations dealing with SDEs. First, students used their conception of rate as a reasoning tool. Second, students used quantification as a mental operation, and third, students enacted what we call a function-variable scheme in their efforts. [For complete proceedings, see ED500860.] |
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| Item Description: | Availability: International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education. 35 Aandwind Street, Kirstenhof, Cape Town, 7945, South Africa. Tel: +27-21-715-3559; Fax: +27-88-021-715-3559; e-mail: info@igpme.org; Web site: http://igpme.org. Sponsoring Agency: National Science Foundation, Washington, DC. Abstractor: Author. Educational level discussed: Higher Education. |
| Physical Description: | 8 pages. |
| Type of Computer File or Data Note: | Text (Reports, Descriptive) Text (Speeches/Meeting Papers) |
| Preferred Citation of Described Materials Note: | International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education, Paper presented at the 27th International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education Conference Held Jointly with the 25th PME-NA Conference (Honolulu, HI, Jul 13-18, 2003), v4 p411-418. |