Definition
The teaching of “discrete mathematics” is not always clearly delimited in the curricula and can be diffuse. In fact, the meaning of “discrete mathematics teaching and learning” is twofold. Indeed, it includes the teaching and learning of discrete concepts (considered as defined objects inscribed in a mathematical theory), but it also includes skills regarding reasoning, modeling, and proving (such skills are specific to discrete mathematics or transversal to mathematics).
What Is Discrete Mathematics?
Discrete mathematics is a comparatively young branch of mathematics with no agreed-on definition (Maurer 1997): only in the last 30 years did it develop as a specific field in mathematics with new ways of reasoning and generating concepts. Nevertheless, the roots of discrete mathematics are older: some emblematic historical discrete problems are now well known, also in education where they are often introduced as enigma, such as the four color theorem (map coloring problem),...
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Ouvrier-Buffet, C. (2020). Discrete Mathematics Teaching and Learning. In: Lerman, S. (eds) Encyclopedia of Mathematics Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15789-0_51
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