Growing understanding of undergraduate mathematics: a good frame produces better tomatoes

Abstract

I lay a new theoretical framework across my own lecturing in order to understand what is happening. On the one hand, this is a test of the framework. On the other, I gain insights into both better practices and better course design. The framework constructs undergraduate teaching as the interaction between the discipline and the university pedagogical context. Overlaying this are three levels of teaching intent: pragmatic, epistemic, and heuristic. The resulting framework supports my growing understanding of lecturing practice. It also proves useful in analysing three characteristics of university mathematics: student responsibility for learning; enculturation of the discipline of mathematics; and the tyranny of examples. The framework is a tool for redesigning courses and developing delivery formats that are likely to enhance student learning and behaviour objectives of undergraduate mathematics. However, the analysis shows a deficiency of the framework in its paucity of attention to student learning in a university context. Extending the framework in this way is the next task.