To Örebro University

Calculus is a central part of the curriculum for tertiary educations in mathematics, science, and technology. At its core lies the concept of derivative, which is known to be problematic for many students. As the corresponding multi-variable concepts of partial derivative, gradient, and directional derivative are not mathematically equivalent, it is essential for students to learn their relations and what they represent geometrically. In this paper, 20 students’ written solutions to an exam problem about the growth of a two-variable function are studied. The warrants they present for their claims are characterized in terms of which representations, concepts, connections, and calculations they use. The findings indicate that students who solve the problem by calculation of directional derivatives are less explicit with their warrants than students who rely on properties of the gradient vector. While the first group only uses algebraic representations, the second combines algebraic and graphical representations.

Students’ difficulties with proofs are well documented. To remedy this, it is often recommended that reasoning and proving be focused on in all grades and content areas of school mathematics. However, proofs continue to have a marginal place in many classrooms, or are only given explicit attention in courses in Euclidean geometry. Geometry is also the most common topic for educational research on reasoning and proving. This paper compares what four other topics in secondary school mathematics – logarithms, primitive functions, definite integrals, and combinatorics – can offer in terms of opportunities to learn proof. The types and natures of reasoning in expository sections and students’ tasks in 11 Swedish and Finnish textbooks are analysed in search of similarities and differences between these topics. The results are accounted for with special focus on opportunities for reasoning about general cases. Finally, the findings are discussed in relation to mathematical aspects of the four analysed topics.

KLiMaT-projektet är en del av Örebro kommuns skolutvecklingssatsning Topp 25 2025 och har haft som syfte att producera kunskap om hur effektivt och ändamålsenligt kollegialt lärande kan organiseras och genomföras i matematikämnet. Det specifika ändamålet har varit att lärare ska kunna möta elevers olika behov. Åtta matematiklärare på Tullängsgymnasiets teknikprogram har utvecklat en problembank med utmanande introduktions- och fördjupningsuppgifter i matematik. Två forskare från Örebro universitet har varit knutna till projektet.

Projektet har organiserats i samråd mellan lärarna, forskarna och skolledningen och har under projekttiden anpassats efter de lokala förutsättningarna. Viktiga utgångspunkter har varit lärdomar från KLÖS-projektet och från Matematiklyftet. Allt arbete har dokumenterats och kompletterats med intervjuer med deltagande lärare. Nedan sammanfattas de viktigaste lärdomarna.

Att ge lärare möjlighet att tillsammans utveckla uppgifter med det uttalade syftet att de ska utmana alla elever, har potential att utveckla lärares beredskap att möta elevernas olika behov. Men för att det kollegiala lärandet ska bli effektivt, ändamålsenligt och hållbart över tid, så är ett antal förutsättningar avgörande:

• Dedikerad tid: Lärarna behöver stöd i form av tid. Den ska finnas på schemat och aldrig konkurrera med andra arbetsuppgifter.

• Relevans: Lärarna behöver få fokusera på sådant som är relevant i närtid för deras egen undervisningspraktik. Detta kan möjliggöras genom att de får arbeta tillsammans med kollegor med liknande undervisningsuppgifter och genom att de själva får välja inriktning på utvecklingsarbetet.

• Ämneslag: Det är en stor fördel om lärarna är organiserade i ämneslag. Då har de ämnesdidaktiska samtalen en reell möjlighet att leva vidare även i dagliga informella möten lärare emellan.

• Deltagande: Alla lärare på skolan bör alltid vara delaktiga i kollegialt lärande.

• Långsiktighet: Innehåll, mål och genomförande i/för/av kollegialt lärande bör diskuteras/beslutas/organiseras med god framförhållning och åtminstone i ett läsårsperspektiv.

• Ledare: För att arbetet ska bli fokuserat och systematiskt behöver någon ha en uttalad ledarroll. Det är en fördel om den personen finns utanför lärargruppen.

Dessa förutsättningar är troligen viktiga oavsett undervisningsämne och ändamål. Det de har gemensamt är att de inte kan uppfyllas av lärarna själva. Det är rektor/skolledning som aktivt och kontinuerligt måste se till att de realiseras. Med utgångspunkt från lärarnas egna tankar ger vi förslag på en modell för genomförande av kollegialt lärande med potential att uppfylla dessa förutsättningar.

När det gäller det specifika ändamålet att möta alla elevers olika behov i matematikundervisningen så visar det här projektet att arbetet stödjs av att lärarna gemensamt utarbetar verktyg, uppgiftsanalysverktyg och observationsprotokoll i KLiMaT, som

• sätter fokus på, karaktäriserar och kan användas för att analysera centrala egenskaper hos de aktiviteter som ska utvecklas,

• synliggör dilemman och motsättningar mellan de olika mål man vill uppnå.

I KLiMaT har det kollegiala lärandet kring matematikundervisning resulterat i en problembank med 13 utmanande uppgifter, kopplade till kurserna Matematik 1c, 2c, 3c, 4 och 5, som på sikt kommer att bli tillgänglig för andra lärare via en webplattform.

Developing tasks for use in mixed-ability classrooms presents teachers with several dilemmas. By making one such dilemma an explicit object of inquiry, this study aims to capture characteristics for challenging tasks suitable for introduction or enrichment. It is based on eight teachers’ collaborative and retrospective analysis of challenging tasks developed in a combined research and school development project. Among the results are the observation that introductory tasks should have an easy entry level and not require pre-knowledge of the upcoming concept, while an enrichment task should require relatively deep conceptual pre-knowledge. It is suggested that attention to seemingly contradictory features of introductory and enrichment tasks can fuel collaborative learning processes so that they include several important aspects of tasks aimed at challenging all students. Teachers’ verbalization of task characteristics is one outcome of such a process.

Challenging mathematical tasks are important for all students’ learning processes, and the demanding job of finding and developing such tasks is preferably done through teacher collaboration. Using cultural-historical activity theory, we analyze three upper secondary teachers’ collaborative learning process in choosing and rejecting tasks for a collection of challenging tasks they have agreed to develop. They collaboratively chose one task to fulfil the criteria of challenging tasks; one task was rejected as it did not fulfil the criteria, and another was temporarily rejected as not all the teachers knew how to solve it themselves. The analysis revealed a positive and open atmosphere among the teachers, with content-focused discussion highlighting mathematical content and teaching related to the tasks discussed. While their discussion showed several signs of collaborative learning, whether their work will result in changes to teaching practice remains to be explored.

Design research och Cultural-historical activity theory kommer i denna studie användas för att studera kollegialt lärande i matematik. Studien utförs med lärare som deltar i ett skolutvecklingsprojekt med ett delsyfte att utveckla undervisningen för elever med särskild begåvning. Forskningen syftar till att bidra med kunskap om kollegialt lärande som en hållbar utvecklingsprocess i en kommun.

Proofs and proving are difficult to learn and difficult to teach. A common problem is that many students use specific examples as evidence for general statements. Difficulties with proofs are also part of the transition problems that exist between secondary and tertiary schooling in mathematics. As mathematics teaching often follows a textbook, the design of textbooks has been pointed out as one possible cause of the problems, and international textbook research suggests that proofs often have only a marginal place in textbooks.

This thesis focuses on proofs and proving in upper secondary mathematics textbooks. It also addresses theoretical and methodological questions about what marks an opportunity to develop proving competence, and which properties of such opportunities are relevant to investigate and characterize. The thesis is based on data from four Swedish and Finnish textbook series for upper secondary school, and focuses on sections on logarithms, primitive functions, definite integrals, and combinatorics. It examines how addressed mathematical principles are justified, and whether the textbooks’ exercises offer opportunities to develop proof-related skills such as formulating and investigating hypotheses, developing and evaluating arguments, identifying and correcting errors, and finding counterexamples.

The results show that just over half of the mathematical principles addressed in the analyzed textbook material are justified, and that only half of the justifications are general proofs. Few exercises are proof-related (10%), and those that include reasoning about general cases even fewer. General proofs are more common in the Finnish books, but proof-related tasks are more common and of a more varied nature in the Swedish ones. The most common form of proofs are direct derivations of calculation formulas, while reasoning about existence and uniqueness is unusual, as are contrapositive proofs and proofs by contradiction.

Based on the results, explicit suggestions are offered as to what teaching can pay more attention to. For the analysis and design of proof-related activities, a framework consisting of four main categories is proposed: develop a statement, investigate a statement, develop an argument, and investigate an argument. Several properties that such activities may have, regardless of which category they belong to, are discussed. Finally, three areas for future research are suggested: how worked examples can support students’ learning of proof, how textbooks can be designed to stimulate formulation as well as the formal proving of hypotheses, and mapping of differences regarding proof between upper secondary and university textbooks.

Despite the central role of proofs in mathematics, research often shows that school textbooks offer limited support for the teaching and learning of proof-related reasoning. This study contributes to this field of research by studying Swedish and Finnish upper secondary textbooks on logarithms and combinatorics. Justifications in expository sections are analysed and students' tasks are categorized according to the type and nature of reasoning they require. The findings imply that opportunities to learn proof-related reasoning are few, and are more oriented towards deductive reasoning in Finnish textbooks and towards empirical reasoning and conjecturing in Swedish textbooks. The results are discussed in relation to similar studies from both Scandinavian and United States contexts, and address future research and development of the theoretical framing of proof-related reasoning.

The aim of this study is to investigate task design for differentiated instruction in mathematics in professional learning communities. Based on the cultural-historical activity theory, we conceptualize a professional learning community as an activity system and use the analytical construct of contradictions to give an account of structures that bring forward the teachers’ work. Eight Swedish upper secondary teachers, engaged in designing tasks for differentiated instruction in mixed-ability mathematics classrooms, are studied. The analysis outlines three contradictions, manifested as three dilemmas, and shows how the teachers, by noticing a dilemma and making it an explicit object of inquiry, came to address a diversity of issues related to differentiated instruction in mathematics. For example, the teachers addressed students’ different learning needs, problem-solving activities for amixed-ability classroom, and design of tasks that are challenging for all students. With input from our findings on the three dilemmas, we then discuss the design of a task analysis guide as a means for facilitating the development of a professional learning community that is inquiry-oriented with astrong content focus on designing tasks for differentiated instruction in mixed-ability mathematics classrooms.