Conceptual blending: Student reasoning when proving “conditional implies conditional” statements

Conceptual blending describes how humans condense information, combining it in novel ways. The blending process may create global insight or new detailed connections, but it may also result in a loss of information, causing confusion. In this paper, we describe the proof writing process of a group of four students in a university geometry course proving a statement of the form conditional implies conditional, i.e., (p → q) ⇒ (r → s). We use blending theory to provide insight into three diverse questions relevant for proof writing: (1) Where do key ideas for proofs come from?, (2) How do students structure their proofs and combine those structures with their more intuitive ideas?, and (3) How are students reasoning when they fail to keep track of the implication structure of the statements that they are using? We also use blending theory to describe the evolution of the students’ proof writing process through four episodes each described by a primary blend.     

中心对称与中心交错矩阵几何

应用对称(交错)矩阵几何基本定理,本文证明了域上中心对称(交错)矩阵几何基本定理.     

浅谈高等数学教学中的概念引入模式

本文介绍了几何图示等五种概念引入模式．提出高等数学教学中应高度重视概念引入模式的观点,试图以此作为提高教学水平与学生数学素质的一个新的突破口.     

Development of a top-view numeric coding teaching-learning trajectory within an elementary grades 3-D visualization design research project

This article explicates the development of top-view numeric coding of 3-D cube structures within a design research project focused on 3-D visualization skills for elementary grades children. It describes children's conceptual development of 3-D cube structures using concrete models, conventional 2-D pictures and abstract top-view numeric representations integrated with the Geocadabra Construction Box, a computer interface that simulates these representations dynamically.     

‘I Finally Get It!’: developing mathematical understanding during teacher education

A deep conceptual understanding of elementary mathematics as appropriate for teaching is increasingly thought to be an important aspect of elementary teacher capacity. This study explores preservice teachers’ initial mathematical understandings and how these understandings developed during a mathematics methods course for upper elementary teachers. The methods course was supplemented by a newly designed optional course in mathematics for teaching. Teacher candidates choosing the optional course were initially weaker in terms of mathematical understanding than their peers, yet showed stronger mathematical development after engaging in the extra hours the optional course provided.     

Using dynamic software in mathematics: the case of reflection symmetry

This study was carried out to examine the effects of computer-assisted instruction (CAI) using dynamic software on the achievement of students in mathematics in the topic of reflection symmetry. The study also aimed to ascertain the pre-service mathematics teachers’ opinions on the use of CAI in mathematics lessons. In the study, a mixed research method was used. The study group of this research consists of 30 pre-service mathematics teachers. The data collection tools used include a reflection knowledge test, a survey and observations. Based on the analysis of the data obtained from the study, the use of CAI had a positive effect on achievement in the topic of reflection symmetry of the pre-service mathematics teachers. The pre-service mathematics teachers were found to largely consider that a mathematics education which is carried out utilizing CAI will be more beneficial in terms of ‘visualization’, ‘saving of time’ and ‘increasing interest/attention in the lesson’. In addition, it was found that the vast majority of them considered using computers in their teaching on the condition that the learning environment in which they would be operating has the appropriate technological equipment.     

Construction of meaning: urban elementary students’ interpretation of geometric puzzles

Mathematical puzzles have long been employed by parents and teachers to augment the standard mathematics curriculum. This paper reports on a study of urban elementary students engaged in the solution of mathematical puzzles. The work confirms that, given the opportunity, these students will construct their own, logically consistent, interpretations of the puzzle clues. In particular, these students used self-generated rules about alignment and orientation to construct meaning in ambiguous clues. Such exercises in logic bring to light the value of student approaches to problem solving, and the possibility of using these approaches as building blocks from which students might construct knowledge in the standard curriculum.     

Validating proofs and counterexamples across content domains: Practices of importance for mathematics majors

Validating proofs and counterexamples across content domains is considered vital practices for undergraduate students to advance their mathematical reasoning and knowledge. To date, not enough is known about the ways mathematics majors determine the validity of arguments in the domains of algebra, analysis, geometry, and number theory—the domains that are central to many mathematics courses. This study reported how 16 mathematics majors, including eight specializing in secondary mathematics education, who had completed more proof-based courses than transition-to-proof classes evaluated various arguments. The results suggest that the students use one of the following strategies in proof and counterexample validation: (1) examination of the argument's structure and (2) line-by-line checking with informal deductive reasoning, example-based reasoning, experience-based reasoning, and informal deductive and example-based reasoning. Most students tended to examine all steps of the argument with informal deductive reasoning across various tasks, suggesting that this approach might be problem dependent. Even though all participating students had taken more proof-related mathematics courses, it is surprising that many of them did not recognize global-structure or line-by-line content-based flaws presented in the argument.     

数学交流及其对数学教育的启示

阐述了数学交流的缘起和功能 ,指出除具有一般的教学功能外 ,数学交流的教学意义特别表现在完善数学思维活动和实现数学教学的社会价值两方面 .最后 ,从三个方面探讨了数学交流观点对数学教育的启示 ,即重视培养学生的数学交流素养 ,利用师生互动的形式重塑教学过程 ,在强调认知的同时关注学生的精神生活 .     

高师数学专业学生实验能力培养的理论研究与实践

数学实验活动是提高学生数学素养,提高学生应用能力和创造能力的有效途径.高师院校学生肩负着未来培养中小学生的数学探究能力和创造能力的重大使命.因此,高师院校数学实验的教学改革研究具有双重的意义.本文通过对高师院校数学实验课程体系改革的理论研究与教学实践,探讨了高师院校数学实验教学的一条新路,提供了适合高师院校学生数学实验能力培养的新教学模式和新途径.     

Research, practice, uncertainty and responsibility

Three issues concerning the relationship between research and practice are addressed. (1) A certain ‘prototype mathematics classroom’ seems to dominate the research field, which in many cases seems selective with respect to what practices to address. I suggest challenging the dominance of the discourse created around the prototype mathematics classroom. (2) I find it important to broaden the school-centred discourse on mathematics education and to address the very different out-of-school practices that include mathematics. Many of these practices are relevant for interpreting what is taking place in a school context. That brings us to (3) socio-political issues of mathematics education. When the different school-sites for learning mathematics as well as the many different practices that include mathematics are related, we enter the socio-political dimension of mathematics education.On the one hand we must consider questions like: Could socio-political discrimination be acted out through mathematics education? Could mathematics education exercise a regimentation and disciplining of students? Could it include discrimination in terms of language? Could it include sexism and racism? On the other hand: Could mathematics education bring about competencies which can be described as empowering, and as supporting the development of mathematical literary or a ‘mathemacy’, important for the development of critical citizenship?However, there is no hope for identifying a one-way route to mathemacy. More generally: There is no simple way of identifying the socio-political functions of mathematics education. Mathematics education has to face uncertainty, and this challenge brings us to the notion of responsibility.     

Convergence of m-bonacci ‘golden ratios’

This paper proves that the ratios of consecutive terms of the m-bonacci sequence converge to a limit φ_m < 2 and, as m → ∞, these φ_m converge to 2. Further, it is shown that the generating functions for the m-bonacci sequences converge pointwise to the geometric series.     

The Mathematics Attitudes and Perceptions Survey: an instrument to assess expert-like views and dispositions among undergraduate mathematics students

One goal of an undergraduate education in mathematics is to help students develop a productive disposition towards mathematics. A way of conceiving of this is as helping mathematical novices transition to more expert-like perceptions of mathematics. This conceptualization creates a need for a way to characterize students' perceptions of mathematics in authentic educational settings. This article presents a survey, the Mathematics Attitudes and Perceptions Survey (MAPS), designed to address this need. We present the development of the MAPS instrument and its validation on a large (N = 3411) set of student data. Results from various MAPS implementations corroborate results from analogous instruments in other STEM disciplines. We present these results and highlight some in particular: MAPS scores correlate with course grades; students tend to move away from expert-like orientations over a semester or year of taking a mathematics course; and interactive-engagement type lectures have less of a negative impact, but no positive impact, on students' overall orientations than traditional lecturing. We include the MAPS instrument in this article and suggest ways in which it may deepen our understanding of undergraduate mathematics education.     

高等数学教学中落实素质教育之浅见

本文主要讨论了数学素质教育的重要性及如何具体在高等数学教学中培养学生的数学素质     

数学思想方法在高等数学教育中的作用

从高等数学教育改革的角度,阐述了数学思想方法的含义和高等数学中的基本数学思想方法,论述了在高等数学教育中加强数学思想方法教学的重要性.