‘I’m still making dots for them’: mathematics lecturers’ views on their mathematical modelling practices

ABSTRACT

Using Cultural-Historical Activity Theory, we analyze lecturers’ views on the aims and teaching practices of mathematical modelling (MM) education in Norway and England. We aim to expose the tensions that exist within the activity of teaching MM at university, such as those between multiple, sometimes competing, aims for teaching MM, or between the lecturers’ professional identities and the structure of university degrees. Our conceptualization of these tensions might help lecturers consider how to overcome obstacles in their own contexts.

KEYWORDS:

• Mathematical modelling
• undergraduate teaching
• Cultural-Historical Activity Theory
• tensions and contradictions

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 All names are pseudonyms.

2 In most UK universities, first year marks do not count towards the average mark that defines the final classification of an undergraduate degree (e.g. First Class, Upper Second Class (2:1), etc.).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Norwegian Centre for Research, Innovation and Coordination of Mathematics Teaching (MatRIC): [Grant Number 170874].