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Calculus Teaching and Learning

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Encyclopedia of Mathematics Education

Definition: What Teaching and Learning Calculus Is About

The differential and integral calculus is considered as one of the greatest inventions in mathematics. Calculus is taught in secondary school and in university. Learning calculus includes the analysis of problems of changes and motion. Previous related concepts, like the concept of a variable and the concept of function, are necessary for the understanding of calculus concepts. However, the learning of calculus includes new notions like the notion of limit and limiting processes, which intrinsically contain changing quantities. The differential and integral calculus is based upon the fundamental concept of limit. The mathematical concept of limit is a particularly difficult notion, typical of the kind of thought required in advanced mathematics.

Calculus Curriculum

There have been efforts in many parts of the world to reform the teaching of calculus. In France, for example, the syllabus changed in the 1960s and 1970s, due to the...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Applied Mathematics, Jerusalem College of Technology, Jerusalem, Israel

    Ivy Kidron

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  1. Ivy Kidron
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Correspondence to Ivy Kidron .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. South Bank University Centre for Mathematics Education, London, UK

    Steve Lerman

Section Editor information

  1. Department of Science Teaching, The Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel

    Ruhama Even

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Kidron, I. (2019). Calculus Teaching and Learning. In: Lerman, S. (eds) Encyclopedia of Mathematics Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77487-9_18-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77487-9_18-2

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