Levels of mathematical knowledge in linear algebra for entering university

Conference contribution (Article)ResearchPeer reviewed

Publication data


ByKolja Pustelnik, Stefanie Rach, Daniel Sommerhoff, Stefan Ufer
Original languageEnglish
Published inMichal Ayalon, Boris Koichu, Roza Leikin, Laurie Rubel, Michal Tabach (Eds.), Proceedings of the 46th Conference of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (vol. 4)
Pages75-82
Editor (Publisher)PME
ISBN978-965-93112-1-7
DOI/Linkhttps://www.igpme.org/publications/current-proceedings/ (Open Access)
Publication statusPublished – 07.2023

Transitioning from school to university represents a challenge for most mathematics students, which is often connected to different characteristics of mathematics at both institutions. Prior mathematical knowledge has been shown to play an important role for success in the first year of university studies. Based on an IRT-approach, we investigate a model for prior knowledge in Linear Algebra for the transition from school to university. The model comprises four levels of mathematical demand and is based on an analogous model for Analysis. It is grounded on the distinction between conceptual and procedural knowledge and on changes of representations. The model allows to describe students’ prior knowledge and investigate in further research, which kind of knowledge is important for the transition to university.