PROCEEDINGS OF THE 16TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON RESEARCH IN UNDERGRADUATE MATHEMATICS EDUCATION (Vol 2)
2013
Denver, Colorado
Undergraduate Students’ Models of Curve Fitting
Page: 2-114
The Models and Modeling Perspectives (MMP) has evolved out of research that began 26 years ago. MMP research uses Model Eliciting Activities (MEAs) to elicit students’ models of mathematical concepts. In this study MMP were used as conceptual framework to investigate the nature of undergraduate students’ models of curve fitting. Participants of this study were prospective mathematics teachers enrolled in an undergraduate mathematics problem solving course. Videotapes of the MEA session, class observation notes, and anecdotes from class discussions served as the sources of data for this study. Iterative videotape analyses as described in Lesh and Lehrer (2003) were used to analyze the videotapes of the participants working on the MEA. Results of this study discuss the nature of students’ models of the concept of curve fitting and add to the introductory undergraduate statistics education research by investigating the learning of the topic curve fitting.