PROCEEDINGS OF THE 21ST ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON RESEARCH IN UNDERGRADUATE MATHEMATICS EDUCATION
2018
San Diego, California
How Experts Conceptualize Differentials: The Results of Two Studies
Page: 1576
The mathematical symbol “dx” is a symbol for which there can exist different views about its characteristics, purposes, and roles. We conducted two studies to see how experts viewed the dx in a variety of contexts. For our first study, we interviewed four mathematicians in order to understand their various concept images of the dx, and for our second study, we interviewed two mathematicians and one physicist about both their own concept images and the concept images they would like for their students to have. Overall, we found little agreement among all of the experts’ responses, and we believe that that further study of experts’ concept images of the differential is warranted.