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Wherefore “plug-and-chug”?: computer algebra versus A-level mathematics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 September 2016

Neil Bibby
Neil Bibby*
Affiliation:
School of Education, University of Exeter, Exeter EX1 2LU
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Extract

The development in recent years of software systems (“computer algebra” systems, or “symbolic manipulators”) which, in effect, automate large areas of mathematics presents an immediate and huge challenge to mathematics education, especially at A-level. For many students current practice in A-level mathematics seems largely to consist of the assimilation, rehearsal and implementation in stereotyped contexts of a more-or-less well-defined set of standard algorithms in short, “plug-and-chug” mathematics, as Philip Davis has described it. With the aid of computer algebra systems demonstrations of “A-level papers in ten minutes” have recently been possible, and this clearly illustrates the essentially “plug-and-chug” nature of the assessment tasks.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Mathematical Gazette , Volume 75 , Issue 471 , March 1991 , pp. 40 - 48
Copyright
Copyright © The Mathematical Association 1991

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