PROCEEDINGS OF THE 19TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON RESEARCH IN UNDERGRADUATE MATHEMATICS EDUCATION
2016
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Analyzing classroom developments of language and notation for interpreting matrices as linear transformations
Page: 1238
As part of a larger study of students reasoning in linear algebra, this research analyzes how students make sense of language and notation introduced by instructors when learning matrices as linear transformations. This paper examines the implementation of an inquiry-oriented instruction that consists of students generating, composing, and inverting matrices in the context of increasing the height and leaning a letter “N” placed on a 2-dimensional Cartesian coordinate system (Wawro et. al., 2012). I analyzed two classroom implementations and noted how instructors introduced and formalized mathematical language and notation in the context of this particular instructional sequence, and then related that to the ways that language and notation were subsequently taken up by students. This work was conducted in order to enable me to build theory about the relationship between student learning and the ways in which language and notation are introduced.