PROCEEDINGS OF THE 15TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON RESEARCH IN UNDERGRADUATE MATHEMATICS EDUCATION (Vol 2)
2012
Portland, Oregon
Challenging Convention: Mathematics Students’ Resistance to the Unconventional
Page: 2-101
This article explores undergraduate mathematics students’ responses to tasks that deal with areas, perimeters, volumes and derivatives, and their abilities to transfer appropriate knowledge to a novel and unconventional situation. Specifically we focus on an unconventional use of parameters in familiar formulas and investigate how students react to such a change and whether they proceed to implement a similar one. Our analysis attends to the specific mathematical ideas and connections transferred by our participants. We suggest that considering and accepting the unconventional is part and parcel to an appreciation of the overarching structure of mathematics.