Abstract
In response to a recent Canada-wide survey, where it was found that mathematicians use computer programming much less in their teaching than in their research, an exploratory study involving 14 Canadian mathematicians sought to gain a deeper understanding of the place of programming in both contexts. To capture the differences in the degree of interaction with programming in various mathematical practices, a scale of six levels has been defined and used. While providing visibility to an aspect of mathematical practice that is often absent from published work, the views of our participants also highlight some important issues that would require attention in order to reduce the identified gap, should that be deemed the favourable direction to take.
Résumé
En réponse à un sondage pancanadien récent, qui révélait que les mathématiciens utilisent beaucoup moins la programmation informatique dans leur enseignement que dans leur recherche, une étude exploratoire auprès de quatorze mathématiciens canadiens a cherché à mieux comprendre la place de la programmation dans ces deux contextes. Une échelle à six niveaux a été définie et utilisée pour caractériser le degré d’interaction avec la programmation dans différentes pratiques mathématiques. Tout en rendant visible un aspect de la pratique mathématique souvent absent des publications, le témoignage des participants à l’étude met en évidence certaines contraintes qu’il conviendrait de revoir si l’on souhaitait réduire l’écart entre les pratiques de recherche et celles qui sont développées dans la formation.
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Notes
The use of quotations here indicates a lack of clarity in the definition of programming. We return to this later. Readers, who are likely to have their own implicit definition, should be aware of a potential ambiguity.
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Acknowledgements
An earlier version of a portion of this paper was presented by Broley at INDRUM 2016 and published in the corresponding proceedings (see Broley 2016). We thank the discussion group on Teachers’ Practices and Institutions for their insightful questions and comments throughout the conference, many of which contributed to our expansion of the paper. We also thank the reviewers and editors for their thoughtful suggestions throughout the review process. The research discussed herein was completed as part of a M.Sc. in mathematics (see Broley 2015 for the complete thesis) at Université de Montréal, with the support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
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Broley, L., Caron, F. & Saint-Aubin, Y. Levels of Programming in Mathematical Research and University Mathematics Education. Int. J. Res. Undergrad. Math. Ed. 4, 38–55 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40753-017-0066-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40753-017-0066-1