Relevant knowledge concerning the derivative concept for students of economics - A normative point of view and students' perspectives

Frank Feudel (1)

1 University of Paderborn

The concept of the derivative plays a major role in economics. A proper understanding of the concept and its application in economics is therefore important for students of economics. In this paper two perspectives on the relevant knowledge concerning the derivative for students of economics are presented: a normative point of view based on literature and the students' perspectives identified in an empirical study. It can be seen that the students' perspectives differed from the normative point of view. An interesting result is that, although emphasized in the course, the students of economics seemed to consider the economic interpretation of the derivative and the corresponding mathematical background knowledge to be much less important than pure mathematical procedures like differentiation rules.

Mots clés: derivative; economics; concept image; economic interpretation

Domaines: Education

Frank Feudel. Relevant knowledge concerning the derivative concept for students of economics - A normative point of view and students' perspectives. First conference of International Network for Didactic Research in University Mathematics, Mar 2016, Montpellier, France. ⟨hal-01337944⟩