In this paper, we initially investigate the capabilities of GPT-3 5 and GPT-4 in solving college-level calculus problems, an essential segment of mathematics that remains under-explored so far. Although improving upon earlier versions, GPT-4 attains approximately 65% accuracy for standard problems and decreases to 20% for competition-like…

This article reports on a qualitative investigation into students' thinking about a differential equations problem posing task; i.e. an initial value problem. Analysis of written and verbal responses to the task indicate that only four of the 34 students who participated in the study were successful in posing problems. Furthermore, only one of the…

While research on the opportunity to learn about mathematics concepts provided by textbooks at the secondary level is well documented, there is still a paucity of similar research at the undergraduate level. Contributing towards addressing this knowledge gap, the present study examined opportunities to engage in quantitative and covariational…

Among the problems identified at Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges, low achievement in mathematical subjects is the most prominent one. This paper documents a qualitative case study undertaken at TVET College in Gauteng with the purpose of exploring the National Certificate Vocational (NC(V)) Level 4 students' errors…

Background/purpose: This research is motivated by the difficulties often experienced by students in adapting to their first year of college, especially related to learning calculus. To address these difficulties, a solution needs to be found so that these problems can be resolved. One solution that is expected to yield optimal results in…

In this paper, we briefly introduce three theoretical frameworks for mathematical identity and why they matter to practitioners teaching undergraduate mathematics courses. These frameworks are narrative identities, communities of practice, and figured worlds. After briefly describing each theory, we provide examples of how each framework can be…

In this study, we examined one experienced mathematician's class practices, with particular attention to cognitive model described in genetic decomposition. Our findings indicate that students only had limited opportunities to be familiar with the first three steps in genetic decomposition, which may potentially lead students to answer limit tasks…

Combinatorial proof serves both as an important topic in combinatorics and as a type of proof with certain properties and constraints. We report on a teaching experiment in which undergraduate students (who were novice provers) engaged in combinatorial reasoning as they proved binomial identities. We highlight ways of understanding that were…

This keynote address explores the history and role of college math requirements with a focus on ensuring math courses serve to expand students' horizons, rather than serve as gatekeepers. It discusses the advent of general education math courses, which brought more students into math departments, which ultimately contributed to broadening the…

This paper extends work in the areas of quantitative reasoning and covariational reasoning at the undergraduate level. Task-based interviews were used to examine third-semester calculus students' reasoning about partial derivatives in five tasks, two of which are situated in a mathematics context. The other three tasks are situated in real-world…

Background: We examine the efficacy of an online collaborative problem-solving (CPS) teaching approach in academic performance and student connections with other peers, among first-year engineering calculus students at a Latin American university. Our research uses communities of practice (CoP) to emphasize the social nature of learning and the…

This paper analyses how pre-service teachers approach the notion of the infinite limit of a sequence from two perspectives: Specialized Content Knowledge and Advanced Mathematical Thinking. The aim of this study is to identify the difficulties associated with this notion and to classify them. In order to achieve this, an exploratory qualitative…

In most mathematics textbooks, each lesson is followed by a set of homework problems in one of two ways -- blocked practice and mixed practice. Additionally, most mathematics textbooks rely on a common learning strategy called overlearning, that is, mastering a skill and continuing to practice this same skill. This study investigated the effects…

This paper characterizes the engagement of two groups of students in a Precalculus course at a four-year public university. A set of "Multiple Solutions Activities" was designed for the course to expose groups of students to alternative solution methods, allowing instructors to explicitly negotiate productive norms to foster students'…

Problem-solving is the essence of mathematics and is the main goal in learning mathematics. Many students did not have good problem-solving skills based on the field observations. The problems grew up because the students were not used to solving the problems and the problem-solving stages. They did not include issues with high complexity, such as…