All Questions
Tagged with mathematical-pedagogy calculus
9
questions
33
votes
14
answers
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Revisiting topics from previous courses [closed]
I teach calculus to students who have almost all taken calculus before. (Primarily first-year college students who took calculus in high school but didn't perform well enough to skip the course.)
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- 11.6k
26
votes
7
answers
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Why are we so careful in saying that dy/dx is not a fraction?
Calculus instructors are mostly very careful to explain that $\frac{\mathrm{d}y}{\mathrm{d}x}$ is not a fraction, and multiplying both sides of an equation by $\mathrm{d}x$ is nonsense, wrong, or evil....
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23
votes
2
answers
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Is Knuth's suggestion on teaching calculus a good idea?
Note: I myself am not a math educator, though I plan to be one someday.
In this letter, Donald Knuth suggests an alternate way of teaching calculus, based on big-O (introduced via a related big-A ...
- 331
15
votes
6
answers
3k
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Is there any difference between teaching calculus for math and engineering students?
In our university both math and engineering students attend in the same calculus classes. There are arguments in our department about the possible influences of this approach on students. It seems ...
user230
11
votes
6
answers
1k
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How can I convince students that Fourier series are useful?
Main question: Calculating the coefficients of a Fourier series can be difficult and time-consuming. How might a student be motivated/convinced to go through these (potentially tedious) details? Are ...
- 1,243
27
votes
6
answers
795
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Would taking 5 minutes to explain the history behind a mathematical idea help stimulate learning the idea?
I read a paper in my "Research Issues in Mathematical Education" class that I have applied to the Undergraduate Calculus I and Calculus II class that I teach. I take five minutes to explain the ...
- 1,218
21
votes
6
answers
6k
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How rigorous should high school calculus be?
In the UK, calculus taught in secondary school focuses mainly on computation of derivatives and integrals and solving simple differential equations. There is a small amount of discussion about limits ...
- 1,725
20
votes
4
answers
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Evaluating the reception of (epsilon, delta) definitions
Both education researchers and mathematicians discuss the challenge of (epsilon, delta) type definitions in real analysis and the student reception of them. My impression has been that mathematicians ...
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14
votes
4
answers
744
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Is there research for or against such an approach in teaching calculus?
Copying from Calculus Made Easy by Silvanus Thompson (2nd ed., 1914):
CHAPTER I:TO DELIVER YOU FROM THE PRELIMINARY TERRORS
The preliminary terror, which chokes off most fifth-form boys from ...
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