Related papers: Difficulties with Learning and Teaching Calculus
Making meaning with math in physics requires blending physical conceptual knowledge with mathematical symbology. Students in introductory physics classes often struggle with this, but it is an essential component of learning how to think…
Data literacy has become a key learning objective in K-12 education, but it remains an ambiguous concept as teachers interpret it differently. When creating assessments, teachers turn broad ideas about "working with data" into concrete…
Studying Mathematics requires a synthesis of skills from a multitude of academic disciplines; logical reasoning being chief among them. This paper explores mathematical logical preparedness of students entering first year university…
The interactive textbook is created for English-speaking students whose study on Mathematical Calculus is based on modern programs of Ukrainian higher educational institutions. It includes personal tasks and samples on ``Integral Calculus…
In problem solving, understanding the problem that one seeks to solve is an essential initial step. In this paper, we propose computational methods for facilitating problem understanding through the task of recognizing the unknown in…
Dirac notation is used commonly in quantum mechanics. However, many upper-level undergraduate and graduate students in physics have difficulties with representations of quantum operators corresponding to observables especially when using…
The example of the calculus is used to explain how simple, practical math was made enormously complex by imposing on it the Western religiously-colored notion of mathematics as "perfect". We describe a pedagogical experiment to make math…
The abundance of multimedia data and information is challenging educators to effectively search, browse, access, use, and store the data for their classroom teaching. However, many educators could still be accustomed to teaching or…
One of the grand challenges of Mathematics instruction is to provide students with problems that are both accessible and have a reasonably elegant solution. Instructors commonly resort to resources like course textbooks, online-learning…
Quantum computation is a rapidly progressing field today. What are its principles? In what sense is it distinct from conventional computation? What are its advantages and disadvantages? What type of problems can it address? How practical is…
Many engineering students enter college excited about math and physics, only to have their enthusiasm dimmed by a rigid, outdated calculus curriculum. The University of Michigan's Robotics Department is piloting a new 4-credit course,…
We have been investigating the difficulties that students in upper-level undergraduate courses have in determining the probability distribution for measuring energy and position as a function of time when the initial wave function is…
The spreadsheet has been used by the business community for many years and yet still raises a number of significant concerns. As educators our concern is to try to develop the students skills in both the development of spreadsheets and in…
The key difference between math as math and math in science is that in science we blend our physical knowledge with our knowledge of math. This blending changes the way we put meaning to math and even to the way we interpret mathematical…
This paper discusses several linear algebra activities designed to help enhance students' skills in collaborating, exploring mathematics, and linking together abstract and visual ways of approaching mathematics. Most of these activities are…
This lecture addresses some general ideas behind numerical computations ranging from representation of numbers in computers to stability and accuracy of standard algorithms for some simple mathematical problems.
We developed a survey to probe student understanding of quantum mechanics concepts at the beginning of graduate instruction. The survey was administered to 202 graduate students in physics enrolled in first-year quantum mechanics courses…
Causality and causal inference have emerged as core research areas at the interface of modern statistics and domains including biomedical sciences, social sciences, computer science, and beyond. The field's inherently interdisciplinary…
There are countless reasons cited in scientific studies to explain the difficulties in programming learning. The reasons range from the subject's complexity, the ineffective teaching and study methods, to psychological aspects such as…
Robust preparation of future secondary mathematics teachers requires attention to the acquisition of mathematical knowledge for teaching. Many future teachers learn mathematics content primarily through mathematics major courses that are…