RUME 14 (Volume 2)
2011
Portland, Oregon
PROMOTING STUDENTS’ REFLECTIVE THINKING OF MULTIPLE QUANTIFICATIONS VIA THE MAYAN ACTIVITY
Page: 414
This research explored principles in designing an instructional intervention to promote students’ reflective thinking about multiple quantifications. We suggested the Mayan activity and examined to what extent it promoted students’ reflective thinking about the independence ofε from N in the ε-N definition of the limit of a sequence. After the Mayan activity, students recognized the problem caused by describing ε as dependent on N and hence understood the significance of the order between them. Students also developed proper reasoning and tested their hypotheses by using the Mayan stonecutter story. These results indicate that the Mayan activity provides an example logically compatible with describing ε as dependent on N, tractable, and transferable.