Linear algebra with a didactical focus

How might you construct an introductory linear algebra course for first year mathematics students? What decisions would you have to make and what issues would you have to address? Barbara Jaworski, Stephanie Treffert-Thomas and Thomas Bartsch, as a small research team, set out to address these questions and others relating to a first year, first semester module in linear algebra. The authors are all members of the School of Science at Loughborough University, they all teach mathematics and do research into mathematics or mathematics education. Thomas Bartsch is a mathematician working in the Department of Mathematical Sciences; Barbara Jaworski and Stephanie Treffert-Thomas are mathematics educators working in the Mathematics Education Centre

Nonstandard problems in an ordinary equations course

We report first results from a teaching intervention in an ordinary differential equations (ODEs) course for engineering students. Our aim is to challenge traditional approaches to teaching of Existence and Uniqueness Theorems (EUTs) through the design of problems that students cannot solve by applying well-rehearsed techniques or familiar methods. We analyse how the use of nonstandard problems contributes to the development of students' conceptual understanding of EUTs and ODEs