Enabling prospective upper secondary mathematics teachers´ teaching in calculus through an interdisciplinary Mathematics and Didactics university course

The aim of this project is to investigate what characterises the double discontinuity between upper secondary school and university and back concerning the topic of calculus in Swedish upper secondary mathematics teacher (USMT) education and how an interdisciplinary approach to teaching advanced mathematics and didactics can contribute to preparing prospective USMTs for teaching calculus.

The project will take place over a four-year period and consist of three studies: a curriculum and textbook analysis of what constitutes the knowledge to be taught concerning calculus at the upper secondary and university levels; a study of an innovative interdisciplinary course in advanced mathematics and didactics, taught through “team teaching”, and how such a teaching approach contributes to the learning of the participating students concerning calculus and its didactics; and a study using focus-group interviews with practicing teachers having taken the course to investigate the long-term influence of such a teaching approach on teachers’ preparedness for teaching calculus.

In conceptualizing the transitions, we draw on the notions of didactical transposition and praxeological organisation of knowledge, while the teaching and learning will be viewed from a discursive perspective, the commognitive framework.

With the project we aim to contribute to the under-researched area of USMT education, generating knowledge that can be used to improve Swedish USMT preparation.