The Nature of Ordinary Differential Equation Learning in an IRDOL Classroom

Conceptual Understanding (CU) approaches, the nature of mathematics learning, are becoming of increasing importance within mathematics education at university level. Results allow to assert that if it is continuously used the CU approaches based on the analysis of students errors, it increases academic performance of students. Recognizing and responding to student errors appropriately is one of the main tasks of teachers in teaching mathematics. The NCTM documents, for example, stress that mathematical errors should not be seen as dead ends but rather as “potential avenues for student learning.” What is less known is the ways in which these approaches support student Ordinary Differential Equation (ODE) learning. My study takes place in the context of a Identifying Recalling Doing Overviewing Learning (IRDOL) ODE class-room. I use grounded theory to answer the research question: How do students construct knowledge in an (IRDOL) ODE classroom? Grounded theory was used to code student interview data and develop a theory of how student ODE learning occurs. The resulting theory shows that Use of IRDOL results in conceptual ODE understanding.