Teo, Kok Ming

The purpose of this paper is to report a part of a calculus research project, about the performance of a group of pre-service mathematics teachers on two tasks on limit and differentiation of the trigonometric sine function in which the unit of angle measurement was in degrees. Most of the pre-service teachers were not cognizant of the unit of angle measurement in the typical differentiation formula, and a number of participants recognized the condition on the unit of angle measurement but did not translate this to the correct procedure for performing differentiation. The result also shows that most of the participants were not able to associate the derivative formula with the process of deriving it from the first principle. Consequently, they did not associate it with finding . In the process of evaluating this limit, the pre-service teachers exhibited further misconceptions about division of a number by zero.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a calculus course using the flipped classroom model on undergraduate students’ achievement in mathematics which was measured by their scores on three quizzes, a test, and a final written examination, as well as their overall scores. The scores of a total of 58 second year students, comprising 17 students in the experimental group and 41 students in the control group, enrolled in a university degree programme in Singapore were analysed retrospectively using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) so as to control for initial differences. The experimental group comprised students who took the flipped calculus course in the August 2016 semester while the control group comprised students who took the same calculus course taught using a lecture-tutorial approach in the August 2013 semester. Results of ANCOVA show that after controlling for initial differences the experimental group scored statistically significantly higher in the test but lower in the final examination than the control group.

In recent years, computer-based technology has enabled university lecturers to teach their courses using non-traditional pedagogies. One such pedagogy is the flipped learning model. As flipped learning is being used more frequently to teach undergraduate mathematics, instructors need to collect data to identify practices that work well to promote student mathematics achievement and favourable perceptions toward this new learning mode. This paper describes six different types of pre-class tasks for a flipped Linear Algebra II course in a Singapore university, such as short videos narrated by the instructor, synopses, summary sheets, worksheets of problems and activities, and online quizzes. The sample comprised 15 pre-service teachers, who had adequate to good mathematics backgrounds, and their participation in this project would prepare them to implement flipped learning in school mathematics in the future. On average, they spent about one hour to complete these weekly pre-class tasks, but the stronger ones reported spending less time on these tasks than the other students. Almost all the students rated very highly these tasks in terms of helping them to learn and enjoyment at mid-semester and end-of-course surveys. These perceptions had weak correlations with the course grade. Suggestions for practice and future research are discussed.

Many types of pricing models incorporating different forms of demand functions have emerged in the past years. In an earlier work, a piecewise- defined Complementarity-Constrained Demand Function (CCDF) was discussed to correct certain weaknesses in commonly used demand functions. The authors introduced a Complementarity-Constrained (CC) pricing model incorporating the CCDF in that same work. However, there was a lack of numerical implementations therein. Hence in a separate work, we developed an algorithm using MATLAB to compare a generic pricing model and a CC pricing model. Experiments were performed to compare the revenues from the two models for certain ranges of parameters defining the demand function. In this work, we conduct further numerical testing by simulating the bidding behaviours of different types of customers and using simulated demand data to compare the models. We find that the use of the CC model leads to higher revenues for certain simulated scenarios.

This paper examines the calculus curriculum in the current Singapore secondary and pre-university levels. Two concepts, (1) increasing and decreasing functions and their derivatives, and (2) the second derivative test for the nature of stationary points, are elaborated. An example of an incorrect calculus item in a national examination is brought up in relation to conditional reasoning involving calculus concepts. We reckon that the current emphasis on procedural knowledge in calculus is useful. However, we argue that formal conditional reasoning should not be introduced prematurely for school students.

In this paper we describe a problem solving course for first year undergraduate mathematics students who would be future school teachers.

The Singapore Mathematics Assessment and Pedagogy Project (SMAPP) is a research project conducted by the National Institute of Education and funded by the Ministry of Education. It aims to make assessment practices an integral part of teaching and learning, and broaden student learning outcomes by using authentic disciplinary tasks. As part of the project, some guidelines are provided for designing disciplinary tasks which have the distinctive features of their emphasis on contextual aspects. One of the criteria of a good disciplinary task is its ability to assess multiple mathematical competencies of students. In this paper, we will present some examples to illustrate how these competencies can be assessed. Another aim is to find out to what extent these tasks serve the purpose of assessing these competencies, by analyzing the students’ performance in a sample SMAPP task.