The role of prior mathematical experience in predicting mathematics performance in higher education

Evidence of deficiencies in basic mathematical skills of beginning undergraduates has been documented worldwide. Many different theories have been set out as to why these declines in mathematical competency levels have occurred over time. One such theory is the widening access to higher education which has resulted in a less mathematically prepared profile of beginning undergraduates than ever before. In response to this situation, the present study details the examination of a range of methods through which a student's mathematical performance in higher education could be predicted at the beginning of their third-level studies. Several statistical prediction methods were examined and the most effective method in predicting students’ mathematical performance was discriminant analysis. The discriminant analysis correctly classified 71.3% of students in terms of mathematics performance. An ability to carry out such a prediction in turn allows for appropriate mathematics remediation to be offered to students predicted to fail third-level mathematics. The results of the prediction of mathematical performance, which was carried out using a database consisting of over 1000 beginning undergraduates over a 3-year period, are detailed in this article along with the implications of such findings to educational policy and practice.     

On Transition to Turbulence and Synthesis of Alternative Approaches

In the study of complex systems, controversial debates often arise among advocates of different schools of thought. In this article, we examine how such controversies should be addressed, with the problem of transition to turbulence as a primary example. It is shown that, in many cases, these controversies may be resolved by first noting that the alternative theories proposed may not be mutually exclusive. Indeed, they may even be mutually complementary, if they were originally developed to address similar issues in different physical contexts. In any case, for the validity of the alternative theories proposed, each should be separately and fully supported from both the theoretical and empirical points of view. Each applies to a specific physical context, and each stands on its own merits and limitations. Synthesis into a broader theory may then be achieved, if commonality is identified among the different alternative theories proposed. To demonstrate this conciliatory approach, we begin with an examination of the move toward resolution of the well‐known controversy over the problem of transition to turbulence from the steady laminar flow in the boundary layer over a flat plate. Several other long‐standing controversies have been successfully addressed on the basis of this approach. In addition to the problem of transition to turbulence, we considered, in some detail, two additional examples: (1) the global structures of spiral galaxies; and (2) the theory of jet noise. In all three cases, it is shown that the model approach is meritorious despite the limitations. Synthesis, with a conciliatory approach to apparent conflicts, will be recommended in general as a new part of an extended paradigm in applied mathematics. It is an approach appropriate to situations where an ideal theory, with universal applicability, is elusive. Parallel development of several alternative theories is natural, and a final synthesis is needed. In contrast, it should be noted that the same perspective is generally not expected useful if the controversies concern the unique solution of well‐defined mathematical issues. The potential success of the application of this conciliatory perception and approach to other areas of science are discussed (see Section 5 ).     

小波方法及其力学应用研究进展

小波理论在进行信号处理与函数逼近时体现出非常独特的时频局部性与多分辨分析能力,小波基函数则可兼具正交性、紧支性、低通滤波与插值性等优良的数学性质,这均使得小波分析理论在计算数学与计算力学领域具有很大的应用潜力,也进一步为这些领域的突破性发展带来了新的契机.自20世纪90年代以来,大量的研究已经证明,基于小波理论的数值方...     

Tracing the early history of algebra: Testimonies on Diophantus in the Greek-speaking world (4th–7th century CE)

The transmission and reception of the mathesis carried by Diophantus' Arithmetica has not attracted much attention among historians of Greek mathematics, who have devoted their scholarly activity almost exclusively to questions about the proper understanding of the character of the mathematical undertaking of the Alexandrian mathematician. As a result, the common belief is that Diophantus' Arithmetica is presented as an isolated, and thus uncontextualized phenomenon in the history of ancient Greek mathematics. The aim of this paper is to investigate testimonies and other piece of evidence suggesting that Diophantus' heritage was present in intellectual milieus of the Greek-speaking world during the late antique and early medieval times. Special emphasis is given to a number of scholia to the arithmetical epigrams of the Palatine Anthology which witness the persistence of the method of problem solving taught by Diophantus in the late antique world.     

How mathematical impossibility changed welfare economics: A history of Arrow's impossibility theorem

During the 20th century, impossibility theorems have become an important part of mathematics. Arrow's impossibility theorem (1950) stands out as one of the first impossibility theorems outside of pure mathematics. It states that it is impossible to design a welfare function (or a voting method) that satisfies some rather innocent looking requirements. Arrow's theorem became the starting point of social choice theory that has had a great impact on welfare economics. This paper will analyze the history of Arrow's impossibility theorem in its mathematical and economic contexts. It will be argued that Arrow made a radical change of the mathematical model of welfare economics by connecting it to the theory of voting and that this change was preconditioned by his deep knowledge of the modern axiomatic approach to mathematics and logic.     

将数学实验的思想和方法融入大学数学教学

大学数学教学中应注重理论联系实际,注重数学思想和方法的讲授,强调应用案例中融入数学实验思想的新教学方法.改革课堂教学方法,探索新的教学模式,加强学生的实践性教学环节,培养学生的应用和创新能力.最后,本文给出了几个例子显示了数学实验与大学数学教学结合的效果.     

Towards an authentic teaching of mathematics: Hans-Georg Steiner’s contribution to the reform of mathematics teaching

Hans-Georg Steiner was the “motor of the reform” of mathematics education in Germany. His main concern was to promote authentic teaching. His suggestions for teaching mathematical structures stimulated the process of reform, but were criticised as well. Two controversies are studied in this paper. The controversy with Detlef Laugwitz in 1965 was about the dichotomy “axiomatics vs. constructiveness”. Another controversy with Alexander Wittenberg in 1964 was about the problem of “elementary”. The following considerations can show the need for fundamental didactical analyses in mathematics education, as they were initiated by Hans-Georg Steiner.     

数学实验——数学方法、数学软件和数学应用的融合

论述了数学方法、数学软件和数学应用在数学实验课中的作用,表述了数学方法、数学软件和数学应用之间的关系.     

Joseph Fourier's Anticipation of Linear Programming

The name of Joseph Fourier (1768-1830) is largely associated with the mathematical analysis of heat diffusion and methods of solving partial differential equations by means of Fourier series, Fourier integrals and the calculus of differential operators. But his interests in mathematics encompassed other fields also, and one of his achievements was to create singlehanded a basic theory of linear programming.     

数学方法论在数学教学中的应用

本文介绍了运用数学方法论的观点指导数学教学的一种崭新的数学教育方式,即应用数学的发展规律、数学的思想方法和数学中的发现、发明与创新的观点设计数学教学．     

On the intellectual heritage of Henri Poincaré

Poincaré's understanding of how mathematics grows over time was informed by the theory of evolution by natural selection and Mach's economy of thought. According to Poincaré, mathematics is neither created nor discovered but cultivated as part of our intellectual inheritance. This paper is based on a lecture delivered at the joint meeting of the BSHM and CSHPM at Trinity College, Dublin, 2011. The title echoes The mathematical heritage of Henri Poincaré (1983) a collection of essays edited by Felix Browder.     

Mathematics and Dialectics in the Soviet Union: The Pre-Stalin Period

During the 1920s, Soviet Marxist theorists paid less attention to developments in mathematics in their own country than to various manifestations of “mathematical idealism” in the West. Their criticism concentrated on set-theoretical studies, the theory of probability, mathematical logic, and the foundations of mathematics. Because of their disunity, the Marxist scholars did not present an obstacle to the work of mathematicians, dominated by the much-heralded Moscow school of mathematics, strong in the theory of functions of a real variable and its applications to topology and several other branches of mathematics. The end of the decade was marked by the beginning of Stalinist pressure to establish full ideological control over all branches of mathematics.Copyright 1999 Academic Press.MSC 1991 subject classifications: 01A60; 01A72; 01A74; 01A80.     

Problematizing mathematics and its pedagogy through teacher engagement with history-focused and classroom situation-specific tasks

We explore the conjecture that engaging teachers with activities which feature mathematical practices from the past (history-focused tasks) and in today’s mathematics classrooms (mathtasks) can promote teachers’ problematizing of mathematics and its pedagogy. Here, we sample evidence of discursive shifts observed as twelve mathematics teachers engage with a set of problematizing activities (PA) – three rounds of history-focused and mathtask combinations – during a four–month postgraduate course. We trace how the commognitive conflicts orchestrated in the PA triggered changes in the teachers’ narratives about: mathematical objects (such as what a function is); how mathematical objects come to be (such as what led to the emergence of the function object); and, pedagogy (such as what value may lie in listening to students or in trialing innovative assessment practices). Our study explores a hitherto under-researched capacity of the commognitive framework to steer the design, evidence identification and impact evaluation of pedagogical interventions.     

Why Rob Archimedes of his Lemma?

The method of exhaustion is one of the greatest achievements of Greek mathematics, but the history of its development is not clear. First and foremost Archimedes’ role has been keenly debated, by and large undermined, so that even his name seems condemned to disappear in the name of the Eudoxus-Archimedes Lemma. In this paper we try to revaluate his role by a new interpretation (or, more precisely, by the refinement of an old one) of the historical development of the theory, underlining the theoretical relevance of the problem of addition/subtraction and comparison between curves. Dedicated to the memory of Professor Aldo Cossu     

A note on powers in finite fields

The study of solutions to polynomial equations over finite fields has a long history in mathematics and is an interesting area of contemporary research. In recent years, the subject has found important applications in the modelling of problems from applied mathematical fields such as signal analysis, system theory, coding theory and cryptology. In this connection, it is of interest to know criteria for the existence of squares and other powers in arbitrary finite fields. Making good use of polynomial division in polynomial rings over finite fields, we have examined a classical criterion of Euler for squares in odd prime fields, giving it a formulation that is apt for generalization to arbitrary finite fields and powers. Our proof uses algebra rather than classical number theory, which makes it convenient when presenting basic methods of applied algebra in the classroom.     

变量替换在大学数学中的应用

变量替换方法在大学数学解题中的应用极其广泛且是效果显著的一种方法。为了提高学生的数学思维和解题技巧。本文对变量替换方法在大学数学中的应用进行了总结,以便学生能熟练掌握和灵活运用好变量替换法。     

Mathematical Connections and Their Relationship to Mathematics Knowledge for Teaching Geometry

Effective competition in a rapidly growing global economy places demands on a society to produce individuals capable of higher‐order critical thinking, creative problem solving, connection making, and innovation. We must look to our teacher education programs to help prospective middle grades teachers build the mathematical habits of mind that promote a conceptually indexed, broad‐based foundation of mathematics knowledge for teaching which encompasses the establishment and strengthening of mathematical connections. The purpose of this concurrent exploratory mixed methods study was to examine prospective middle grades teachers' mathematics knowledge for teaching geometry and the connections made while completing open and closed card sort tasks meant to probe mathematical connections. Although prospective middle grades teachers' mathematics knowledge for teaching geometry was below average, they were able to make over 280 mathematical connections during the card sort tasks. Curricular connections made had a statistically significant positive impact on mathematics knowledge for teaching geometry.     

Toward Improving the Mathematics Preparation of Elementary Preservice Teachers

Research suggests the importance of mathematics knowledge for teaching (MKT) for enabling elementary school teachers to effectively teach mathematics. MKT involves both mathematical content knowledge (M‐CK) and mathematical pedagogical content knowledge (M‐PCK). However, there is no consensus on how best to prepare elementary preservice teachers (PSTs) to achieve M‐CK and M‐PCK. This study builds on research related to MKT by investigating influences of mathematics content courses designed specifically for elementary PSTs (IMPACT courses—Impact of Mathematics Pedagogy and Content on Teaching) on their attitudes (i.e., confidence and motivation) toward M‐CK and M‐PCK. Results suggest that the PSTs who participated in these IMPACT courses not only acquired high levels of confidence and motivation toward M‐CK, but also showed significant and greater gains in attitudes toward M‐PCK, after taking the required mathematics methods course, than their counterparts. Further, the findings suggest that these IMPACT courses provided a mathematical foundation that allowed the PSTs to engage in mathematics teaching methods better than those PSTs who did not have such a foundation. These results suggest potential course experiences that may enhance M‐CK and M‐PCK for elementary PSTs.     

Using comics-based representations of teaching, and technology, to bring practice to teacher education courses

This article situates comic-based representations of teaching in the long history of tensions between theory and practice in teacher education. The article argues that comics can be semiotic resources in learning to teach and suggests how information technologies can support experiences with comics in university mathematics methods courses that (a) help learners see the mathematical work of teaching in lessons they observe, (b) allow candidates to explore tactical decision-making in teaching, and (c) support preservice teachers in rehearsing classroom interactions.     

Conceptualizing inquiry-based education in mathematics

The terms inquiry-based learning and inquiry-based education have appeared with increasing frequency in educational policy and curriculum documents related to mathematics and science education over the past decade, indicating a major educational trend. We go back to the origin of inquiry as a pedagogical concept in the work of Dewey (e.g. 1916, 1938) to analyse and discuss its migration to science and mathematics education. For conceptualizing inquiry-based mathematics education (IBME) it is important to analyse how this concept resonates with already well-established theoretical frameworks in mathematics education. Six such frameworks are analysed from the perspective of inquiry: the problem-solving tradition, the theory of didactical situations, the realistic mathematics education programme, the mathematical modelling perspective, the anthropological theory of didactics, and the dialogical and critical approach to mathematics education. In an appendix these frameworks are illustrated with paradigmatic examples of teaching activities with inquiry elements. The paper is rounded off with a list of ten concerns for the development and implementation of IBME.