Search results for "teaching and learning"
showing 10 items of 72 documents
Difficulties in learning and teaching of Quantum Physics in High School
2013
Quantum Physics is a very important part of Physics. In this paper we analyze its teaching and learning in high school and we show the students’ main difficulties, particularly the ontological and epistemological. This article presents some reasoned arguments against traditional methods to teach Quantum Physics. Finally, a new approach to quantum Physics teaching is showed.
Supporting and constraining factors in the development of university teaching experienced by teachers
2017
Higher education calls for reform, but deeper knowledge about the prerequisites for teaching development and pedagogical change is missing. In this study, 51 university teachers’ experiences of supportive or constraining factors in teaching development were investigated in the context of Finland’s multidisciplinary network. The findings reveal that the supportive factors in teaching development arise from the nature of the development itself, i.e. from the teachers’ opportunities to act as active agents in an authentic development process. Furthermore, the circumstances of the development also play essential roles (both constraining and supportive) in teaching development. Such support, at …
Esperienze di Debate all’Università di Palermo
2023
Introduzione Il Progetto Mentore per la didattica dell'Università di Palermo è un’esperienza di formazione e miglioramento della didattica universitaria a cui partecipiamo su base volontaria da alcuni anni. Le attività del Progetto includono anche la formazione su alcune specifiche metodologie didattiche, ma contemporaneamente, attraverso il confronto e il dialogo tra pari, incentivano la ricerca e l’elaborazione di nuovi percorsi didattici all’interno dei rispettivi insegnamenti. In questo contesto, su iniziativa autonoma e attraverso una formazione da autodidatti, abbiamo sperimentato in due insegnamenti di Corsi di Laurea di ambito disciplinare diverso (Giurisprudenza e Chimica) la metod…
Spanish/FL in Slovakia. A historical and Methodological Approach
2015
Abstract The present investigation forms part of the draft of study in comparative perspective of the perception of the target language among students of Spanish from different universities and countries in Europe, from the perspective of teaching languages as a cultural fact and the importance of the social, political and economic factors in the evolution and perception of the importance of SFL learning in the European context. We want to carry out an approach to investigation of various authors on the evolution of the study of Spanish as a foreign language in Central and Eastern Europe, and specifically to the teaching of Spanish at Slovak universities. We have taken as a reference the ev…
Tasks for enriching the understanding of the concept of linear span
2018
International audience; The concept of linear span is one of the first abstract notions that students encounter in a course on Linear Algebra. Using the theoretical construct of concept image and concept definition (Tall & Vinner, 1981) along with observations about teaching and learning Linear Algebra, we present two tasks designed to enrich students' concept image regarding linear span. These tasks could be included in a problem workshop of an introductory university course on Linear Algebra. Each task is carefully created and/or selected so as to foster the ground for potential conflict factors to arise and be confronted. A preliminary evaluation shows that the tasks are well received by…
Seminar groups as part of first-semester mathematics teaching: What did the students learn?
2018
International audience; In this study, the learning encouraged by teaching activities in a small-group setting was investigated through the analysis of students' responses to survey and interview questions. The results indicate that the students perceived an increased ability to communicate mathematics in written form, but to a lesser extent developed their ability to discuss mathematics and build conceptual understanding.
First-year university students making sense of symbols in integration
2020
International audience; This paper focuses on first year university engineering students and their sensemaking of integration and its symbolism. Through a semiotic approach, attention is given to two students and their attempt to verbally express their reflections on integration and the related meaning of symbols. Findings suggest that students tend to interpret the symbols mainly as operations, in terms of calculations to be carried out. They express uncertainty concerning what the symbols stand for, and the mathematical objects they represent. For example, the symbols ∫ and are respectively conceived of as “finding the integral with respect to x” and students are unclear on how Riemann su…
Bridging probability and calculus: the case of continuous distributions and integrals at the secondary-tertiary transition
2018
International audience; This paper focuses on two mathematical topics, namely continuous probability distributions (CPD) and integral calculus (IC). These two sectors that are linked by the formula P(a<=X<=b)=int_a^b f(x)dx are quite compartmented in teaching classes in France. The main objective is to study whether French students can mobilize the sector of IC to solve tasks in CPD and vice versa at the transition from high school to higher education. Applying the theoretical framework of the Anthropological Theory of the Didactic (ATD), we describe a reference epistemological model (REM) and use it to elaborate a questionnaire in order to test the capacity of students to bridge CPD and IC…
Weekly homework quizzes as formative assessment for Engineering students are a fair and effective strategy to increase learning?
2018
International audience; A strategy to apply online weekly homework quizzes as formative assessment for Engineering students was designed and tested in order to study if it increases student's learning. The strategy was to make optional weekly online quizzes not randomly generated that students may retry over and over again until to reach the correct answer, they contribute to 10% of grade but only if students get 45% or more in traditional assessment.The quizzes were applied to two different mathematics courses (Single and Multivariable Calculus) of two different Engineering degrees, each one to around 100 students and during a semester. Student's adherence was very high, nearly all student…
“Making connections” in the mathematics courses for engineers: the example of online resources for trigonometry
2018
International audience; This paper concerns the teaching of mathematics for future engineers, focusing on the theme of trigonometry. We claim that the use of trigonometry in engineering courses requires different kinds of connections: connecting different domains, different concepts, frames and registers. We use here the concept of connectivity, developed in the frame of e-textbooks analysis, to analyse online courses for future engineers in France. We evidence that these courses propose some connections; but their connectivity is not developed enough to meet the requirements of engineering courses.