Activities: Iterating Linear Functions—An Introduction to Dynamical Systems

1997 ◽  
Vol 90 (2) ◽  
pp. 122-136
Author(s):  
Jonathan Choate

The arrival of computers has caused some major changes in both mathematics and mathematics education. One of the biggest shifts has been from an emphasis on symbolic methods to one on numerical methods. One field of mathematics, dynamical systems, requires considerable number crunching and is just coming into its own because we currently have the ability to perform extensive calculations easily. This article introduces students to this new field. The study of sequences created by using numerical iteration provides interesting new ways to approach many of the concepts central to the secondary mathematics curriculum, such as functions in general and linear and exponential functions in particular.

1992 ◽  
Vol 39 (6) ◽  
pp. 24-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
David J. Clarke

The Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics (NCTM 1989, 1, 2) emphasizes the role of evaluation “in gathering information on which teachers can base their subsequent instruction.” This strong sense of assessment's informing instructional practice is also evident in the materials arising from the Australian Mathematics Curriculum and Teaching Program (Clarke 1989: Lovitt and Clarke 1988, 1989). Both projects offer their respective mathematics-education communities a set of goal much broader than those traditionally conceived for mathematics instruction. The adoption of these goals by mathematics teachers and school systems demands the use of new assessment strategies if the restructuring of the mathematics curriculum and mathematics-teaching practice is to be effected. Mathematics education must not restrict itself to those goals that can be assessed only through conventional pencil-and-paper methods.


1996 ◽  
Vol 27 (5) ◽  
pp. 609-615
Author(s):  
Nel Noddings

All four of the books reviewed here are deeply concemed with issues of equiry in mathematics education. I'll say a bit about each book in order to orient readers, and then I'll organize my remarks around the themes that arise again and again: the nature of mathematics. mathematics curriculum and pedagogy, and the philosophical and cultural factors inside and outside classroom that affect our educational efforts.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 27-33
Author(s):  
Laxmi Prasad Bhattarai ◽  
Hari Prasad Upadhyaya

Most of the Nepali students have been widely found using different unauthorized book and study materials for achieving good results in their exams in secondary levels as well as higher levels of education. Theseunauthorized books and study materials have been found usefulas they are mostly exam oriented and have the detailed worked out questions and answers from the past years asked by the examination board of Nepal.A study was conducted to examine the usefulness of such materials in mathematics of secondary level education. It was also aimed to assess the beliefs of students, parents and teachers on the use of unauthorized study materials and achieve success in the secondary mathematics education in Nepal. By using semi-structured questionnaire with students and key informant interviews with selected parents/guardians and mathematics teachers, the researcher has explored the achievements of students and beliefs and attitudes of students along with perspectives of their parents and math teachers.  


Pythagoras ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Renuka Vithal

Mathematics education and its links to democracy and development are explored in this article, with specific reference to the case of South Africa. This is done by engaging four key questions. Firstly, the question of whether mathematics education can be a preparation for democracy and include a concern for development, is discussed by drawing on conceptual tools of critical mathematics education and allied areas in a development context. Secondly, the question of how mathematics education is distributed in society and participates in shaping educational possibilities in addressing its development needs and goals is used to examine the issues emerging from mathematics performance in international studies and the national Grade 12 examination; the latter is explored specifically in respect of the South African mathematics curriculum reforms and teacher education challenges. Thirdly, the question of whether a mathematics classroom can be a space for democratic living and learning that equally recognises the importance of issues of development in contexts like South Africa, as a post-conflict society still healing from its apartheid wounds, continuing inequality and poverty, is explored through pedagogies of conflict, dialogue and forgiveness. Finally the question of whether democracy and development can have anything to do with mathematics content matters, is discussed by appropriating, as a metaphor, South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s framework of multiple ‘truths’, to seek links within and across the various forms and movements in mathematics and mathematics education that have emerged in the past few decades.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yingmin Sun

This article elaborates the meaning of policy borrowing and Phillips’ theoretical framework of policy borrowing. Then, it provides a background of various practices of policy borrowing in education and mathematics education specifically. Thirdly, the article argues two contributions of policy borrowing to policy in mathematics education and envision mathematics education policies in future. Finally, it takes China’s mathematics curriculum reform as a case to analyse two contribution of policy borrowing to practice in mathematics education and conclude by envisioning the future mathematics education practice.


2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 6020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdullah Kaplan ◽  
Muhammet Doruk ◽  
Mesut Öztürk ◽  
Murat Duran

The purpose of this study was to determine the levels of mathematics and mathematics education students’ views about mathematical proof and find out whether there was a significant difference among students’ views according to their departments or not. The study was conducted with senior students (n=275) studying in final year at the department of Primary Mathematics Teacher Training (n=98), Secondary Mathematics Teacher Training (n=87) and Mathematics (n=90) at a state university at the beginning of the spring semester of 2014-2015 academic terms in East Anatolia Region of Turkey. Quantitative research approach was adopted in this study. The model of the study was comparative research which was one of the model in the nonexperimental research designs. The data were collected with Conception Scale for Mathematical Proof developed by Doruk and Güler (2014). Results of the study showed that secondary mathematics teacher training students had more negative overall views, more negative views regarding benefits obtained from mathematical proof in mathematical sense, and less self-confidence, and more negative views about meaning assigned to proof than other students. Moreover, it was revealed that mathematics students’ views regarding necessity of proof in mathematics and mathematics education were more positive than other students. ÖzetBu çalışmanın amacı matematik ve matematik eğitimi öğrencilerinin matematiksel ispata yönelik görüşlerinin düzeylerini belirlemek ve öğrenci görüşlerinin öğrenim görülen bölümlere göre farklılık gösterip göstermediğini ortaya çıkarmaktır. Çalışma 2014-2015 öğretim yılının bahar yarıyılının başında, Doğu Anadolu Bölgesi’ndeki bir devlet üniversitesinin son sınıflarında öğrenim gören toplam 275 ilköğretim matematik öğretmenliği (n=98), ortaöğretim matematik öğretmenliği (n=87) ve matematik bölümü öğrencileri (n=90) ile yürütülmüştür. Çalışmada nicel araştırma yaklaşımı benimsenmiştir. Çalışmanın modeli deneysel olmayan desenlerden biri olan karşılaştırmalı araştırma modelidir. Çalışmanın verileri, Doruk ve Güler (2014) tarafından geliştirilen Matematiksel İspata Yönelik Görüş Ölçeği ile toplanmıştır. Çalışma sonucunda, ortaöğretim matematik öğretmenliği bölümü öğrencilerinin ispata yönelik genel görüşlerinin, ispatların kendilerine matematiksel anlamda sağladığı faydalara yönelik görüşlerinin, ispata karşı özgüvenlerinin ve ispata yükledikleri anlamın diğer öğrencilere göre daha olumsuz olduğu tespit edilmiştir. Matematik bölümü öğrencilerinin ispatın matematik ve matematik eğitimindeki gerekliliğine yönelik görüşlerinin ise diğer öğrencilere nazaran daha olumlu olduğu ortaya çıkmıştır.


Author(s):  
Penny L. Hammrich ◽  
Greer M. Richardson ◽  
Beverly D. Livingston

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