Coordinating informal and formal aspects of mathematics : student behavior and textbook messages

• In this paper I illustrate difficulties students have coordinating informal and formal aspects of mathematics. I also discuss two ways in which precalculus and calculus textbooks treat mathematics that may make this coordination difficult: emphasizing the informal at the expense of the formal and emphasizing the formal at the expense of the informal. By looking at student difficulties in light of textbook treatments, we see evidence that student difficulties are not merely developmental. Students are not given many opportunities to make the kinds of connections which, while difficult, are an essential component of mathematical thinking.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Utbildningsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Educational Sciences (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Informal mathematics

Formal mathematics

Precalculus textbooks

Calculus textbooks

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)