PROCEEDINGS OF THE 22ND ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON RESEARCH IN UNDERGRADUATE MATHEMATICS EDUCATION
2019
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
An analysis of a mathematician’s reflections on teaching eigenvalues and eigenvectors: Moving between embodied, symbolic and formal worlds of mathematical thinking
Page: 586
In this paper, we analyzed a mathematician’s daily teaching journals of a 5-day series of teaching episodes on eigenvalues and eigenvectors in a first-year linear algebra course. We employed Tall’s (2013) three world model, in conjunction with Tall and Vinner’s (1981) concept images and concept definitions, to follow the mathematician and instructor’s movements between Tall’s worlds. The study showed that the instructor strived to build concept images that, while perhaps mirroring his own concept images, did not resonate with the students.