An Integrated Methodological Approach for Documenting Individual and Collective Mathematical Progress: Reinventing the Euler Method Algorithmic Tool

Abstract

In this paper we advance a methodological approach for documenting the mathematical progress of learners as an integrated analysis of individual and collective activity. Our approach is grounded in and expands the emergent perspective by integrating four analytic constructs: individual meanings, individual participation, collective mathematical practices, and collective disciplinary practices. Using video data of one small group of four students in an inquiry-oriented differential equations classroom, we analyze a 10 min segment in which one small group reinvent Euler’s method, an algorithmic tool for approximating solutions to differential equations. A central intellectual contribution of this work is elaborating and coordinating the four methodological constructs with greater integration, cohesiveness, and coherence.