Teaching mathematical modelling at university level: a Research and Study Course (RSC) on population dynamics

NAFADISE

Speaker: Berta Barquero, Autonomous U. of Barcelona, Spain

Abstract: This talk will focus on the problem of teaching of mathematical modelling in experimental sciences university degrees. One would assume that this is an institutional environment that is welcoming to the teaching of mathematics, since teaching processes coexist with research practices full of mathematical modelling. However, and at least in Spain, modelling is rarely included in the university curriculum. Within the frame of the Anthropological Theory of the Didactic (ATD), we propose the design of Research and Study Courses (RSC) as a new didactic device capable of (1) “breaking” the atomization of mathematics taught at university level; (2) of facilitating the inclusion of mathematical modelling in educational systems; and (3), more importantly, to explicitly locate mathematical modelling problems in the center of the teaching and learning processes. The mathematical and didactical design of a RSC based on the study of population dynamics will be presented. We will also discuss some of the specific conditions that the use of RSC requires and some other generic restrictions that arise from different levels of didactical codetermination (Chevallard 2001 and 2002).