PROCEEDINGS OF THE 17TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON RESEARCH IN UNDERGRADUATE MATHEMATICS EDUCATION
2014
Denver, Colorado
Differences In Expectations Between Explicit Statements And Actual Practices Using Vectors In A Trigonometry And Physics Course
Page: 700
Science and engineering instructors often observe that students have difficulty using or applying prerequisite mathematics knowledge in their courses. Historically, transfer theory is used to investigate students’ issue applying their vector knowledge from a trigonometry course to a physics course, but this qualitative case-study is positioned differently epistemologically and theoretically from transfer theory to understand and describe the mathematical vector practices in the two courses. Saussure’s (1959) concept of signifier and signified provided a lens for examining the data during analysis. Multiple recursions of within-case comparisons and across- case comparison were analyzed for differences in what the instructors and textbooks explicitly stated and later performed as their practices. While the trigonometry and physics instruction differed slightly, the two main differences occurred in the nature and use of vectors in the physics course.