PROCEEDINGS OF THE 21ST ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON RESEARCH IN UNDERGRADUATE MATHEMATICS EDUCATION
2018
San Diego, California
The Authority of Numbers: Fostering Opportunities for Rational Dependence in a Mathematics Classroom
Page: 965
This cross-case analysis of quantitative literacy instruction at the undergraduate level compares three different settings where activities were introduced that required students to seek out and make use of information outside of the classroom. These activities provided students with opportunities to engage with quantitative claims made by experts and by comparing these cases I was able to identify several axes of variability that affect the extent to which the problems supported the practice of rational dependence, or the reasoned dependence on the knowledge of others. These variables include the extent to which students are held accountable for their choices of information sources, the way in which the teacher frames what it means to critically appraise a quantitative claim, and the role that mathematics plays in the activity.