The sixth volume of Research in Collegiate Mathematics Education presents state-of-the-art research on understanding, teaching, and learning mathematics at the postsecondary level. The articles advance our understanding of collegiate mathematics education while being readable by a wide audience of mathematicians interested in issues affecting their own students. This is a collection of useful and informative research regarding the ways our students think about and learn mathematics.The volume opens with studies on students' experiences with calculus reform and on the effects of concept-based calculus instruction. The next study uses technology and the van Hiele framework to help students construct concept images of sequential convergence. The volume continues with studies ondeveloping and assessing specific competencies in real analysis, on introductory complex analysis, and on using geometry in teaching and learning linear algebra. It closes with a study on the processes used in proof construction and another on the transition to graduate studies in mathematics. Whether they are specialists in education or mathematicians interested in finding out about the field, readers will obtain new insights about teaching and learning and will take away ideas that they canuse. Information for our distributors: This series is published in cooperation with the Mathematical Association of America.

The present volume of Research in Collegiate Mathematics Education, like previous volumes in this series, reflects the importance of research in mathematics education at the collegiate level. The editors in this series encourage communication between mathematicians and mathematics educators, and as pointed out by the International Commission of Mathematics Instruction (ICMI), much more work is needed in concert with these two groups. Indeed, editors of RCME are aware of this need and the articles published in this series are in line with that goal. Nine papers constitute this volume. The first two examine problems students experience when converting a representation from one particular system of representations to another. The next three papers investigate students learning about proofs. In the next two papers, the focus is instructor knowledge for teaching calculus. The final two papers in the volume address the nature of ``conception'' in mathematics. Whether they are specialists in education or mathematicians interested in finding out about the field, readers will obtain new insights about teaching and learning and will take away ideas that they can use.

Progress in mathematics frequently occurs first by studying particular examples and then by generalizing the patterns that have been observed into far-reaching theorems. Similarly, in teaching mathematics one often employs examples to motivate a general principle or to illustrate its use. This volume uses the same idea in the context of learning how to teach: by analyzing particular teaching situations, one can develop broadly applicable teaching skills useful for the professional mathematician. These teaching situations are the case studies of the title. Just as a good mathematician seeks both to understand the details of a particular problem and to put it in a broader context, the examples presented here are chosen to offer a serious set of detailed teaching issues and to afford analysis from a broad perspective. Each case raises a variety of pedagogical and communication issues that may be explored either individually or in a group facilitated by a faculty member. The methodology of case studies is widely used in areas such as business and law. The consideration of the mathematics cases presented here should help readers to develop teaching skills for their own classrooms.

The field of research in collegiate mathematics education has grown rapidly over the past twenty-five years. Many people are convinced that improvement in mathematics education can only come with a greater understanding of what is involved when a student tries to learn mathematics and how pedagogy can be more directly related to the learning process. Today there is a substantial body of work and a growing group of researchers addressing both basic and applied issues of mathematics education at the collegiate level. This volume is testimony to the growth of the field. The intention is to publish volumes on this topic annually, doing more or less as the level of growth dictates. The introductory articles, survey papers, and current research that appear in this first issue convey some aspects of the state of the art. The book is aimed at researchers in collegiate mathematics education and teachers of college-level mathematics courses who may find ideas and results that are useful to them in their practice of teaching, as well as the wider community of scholars interested in the intellectual issues raised by the problem of learning mathematics.

This practical, engaging book explores the fundamentals of pedagogy and the unique challenges of teaching undergraduate mathematics not commonly addressed in most education literature. Professor and mathematician, Suzanne Kelton offers a straightforward framework for new faculty and graduate students to establish their individual preferences for course policy and content exposition, while alerting them to potential pitfalls. The book discusses the running of day-to-day class meetings and offers specific strategies to improve learning and retention, as well as concrete examples and effective tools for class discussion that draw from a variety of commonly taught undergraduate mathematics courses. Kelton also offers readers a structured approach to evaluating and honing their own teaching skills, as well as utilizing peer and student evaluations. Offering an engaging and clearly written approach designed specifically for mathematicians, A Beginner’s Guide to Teaching Mathematics in the Undergraduate Classroom offers an artful introduction to teaching undergraduate mathematics in universities and community colleges. This text will be useful for new instructors, faculty, and graduate teaching assistants alike.

The book focuses on the latest developments of the Anthropological Theory of the Didactic (ATD) and its links with other approaches in mathematics education. Leading researchers in the ATD and especially its creator, Yves Chevallard, present recent research results, theoretical advances and new methodologies in this approach, concerning critical educational problems at all levels. The book is addressed to researchers in mathematics education and all related fields, to teacher educators and teachers in primary, secondary and tertiary education interested in curriculum issues and research in didactics. The book includes four sections that correspond to four axes of current research in the framework of the ATD. The first one studies the relations between the ATD and other research frameworks. The second section focuses on the crucial role of didactics in teacher education, and the experiences carried out at different instructional levels. The third section addresses the curriculum problem in the historical transition from the classical paradigm of visiting works to the emerging didactic paradigm of questioning the world. The last section is about research in didactics at the university level, with investigations about the analysis of didactic transposition processes and the design and implementation of various instructional formats.