Research in Collegiate Mathematics Education II

The field of research in collegiate mathematics education has grown rapidly over the past 25 years. Many people are convinced that improvement in mathematics education can only come with a greater understanding of what is involved when a student tries to learn mathematics and how pedagogy can be more directly related to the learning process. Today there is a substantial body of work and a growing group of researchers addressing both basic and applied issues of mathematics education at the collegiate level. This second volume in Research in Collegiate Mathematics Education begins with a paper that attends to methodology and closes with a list of questions. The lead-off paper describes a distinctive approach to research on key concepts in the undergraduate mathematics curriculum. This approach is distinguished from others in several ways, especially its integration of research and instruction. The papers in this volume exhibit a large diversity in methods and purposes, ranging from historical studies, to theoretical examinations of the role of gender in mathematics education, to practical evaluations of particular practices and circumstances. As in RCME I, this volume poses a list of questions to the reader related to undergraduate mathematics education. The eighteen questions were raised at the first Oberwolfach Conference in Undergraduate Mathematics Education, which was held in the Fall of 1995, and are related to both research and curriculum. This series is published in cooperation with the Mathematical Association of America.