Abstract

VALENCIA ALVAREZ, Adriana Berenice  and  VALENZUELA GONZALEZ, Jaime Ricardo. To what Kind of Mathematical Problems are Calculus Students Exposed? A Textbook Analysis. Educ. mat. [online]. 2017, vol.29, n.3, pp.51-78.  Epub Feb 14, 2022. ISSN 2448-8089.  https://doi.org/10.24844/em2903.02.

Given the importance of solving mathematical problems placed in real contexts and given the influence of the textbook in the teaching and learning of mathematics, it is important to study to what kind of mathematical problems students are exposed. In this article, we present a distinction between conventional mathematical problems and mathematical modeling problems in terms of nine aspects related to the problem statement and its solution (Green and Emerson, 2010). Using these nine criteria, we analyzed and classified a total of 188 examples and 1,114 exercises found in the unit about functions in a sample of Calculus textbooks from Mexican and American publishing companies. As a result, the analysis showed that between 65% and 87% of the examples and exercises in the books studied were classified as completely conventional problems. Modeling problems were found in only three of the books analyzed and these correspond to merely 1% or 2% of the examples and exercises of the unit.

Keywords : Analysis of textbooks; mathematical modeling problems; conventional problems; solving problems; Calculus.

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