[Ouctm-l] Math Ed Colloquium Today! You are invited

[Klein, Bob]

There is a nice poster that describes this talk but the listserv doesn't allow me to use attachments. So here's the unpretty version. Please consider coming. Kyeong Hah is quite good. I hope to see you there.

BK

A Design of Instructional Interventions to Promote  Students’ Reflective Thinking in Avanced Calculus
Presented by:
Kyeong Hah Roh
School Of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences,
Arizona State University
Monday, November 1, 2010
4:10 pm, Morton Hall 318
Refreshments will be served in Morton Hall 325 at 3:30 pm

Abstract:
The purpose of this research is to
explore the principles in designing an
instructional intervention to promote
students’  reflective thinking in advanced
calculus. We pay attention to
students’ reflective thinking of the
relationship between ε and N of the
convergence of sequences. We suggest
the Mayan activity as an instructional
intervention and examine to
what extent it promotes students’
reflective thinking. This research was
conducted as a design experiment in
advanced calculus classes. Initially,
most of students could not recognize
what kind of problem is caused by the
reversal of the order between the
variables ε and N, and had a difficulty
in evaluating the given contexts due
to the deficiency of the perception.
However, after the Mayan activity,
they could perceive the problem of
describing ε dependently on N in the
given contexts and hence could understand
the meaning of the order
between them. In fact, the students
could raise properly the problem,
develop proper reasoning, and test
their hypothesis via comparing the
given contexts with the Mayan stonecutter
story in the Mayan activity.
These results indicate that the Mayan
activity, as an instructional intervention,
plays a crucial role in promoting
the students’ reflective thinking of the
independence of ε from N. In particular,
the Mayan stonecutter story provides
to the students an example to be
logically compatible with the given
contexts describing ε dependently on
N, furthermore, to be tractable and
transferable.
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