A common perception among researchers in mathematics education is that the transition between secondary- and tertiary level of mathematics may be problematic for the students. In particular, the exact and abstract nature of the theory of Linear algebra versus its arithmetic-geometric presentation in school appears to be difficult for the novice students. The application of properties for defining concepts at university in contrast to their usage for describing concepts in school points out a possible occurrence of obstacles for learning and discrepancies in procedural and conceptual understanding. The aim of this project is to examine how could upper-high school students develop a conceptual understanding based on concept definition and concept image in connection to multiple modes of description and thinking about concepts such as bi-linearity exemplified by the dot product of vectors and multi-linearity exemplified by determinants of matrices.

• Dr. Ana Donevska-Todorova (Projektleitung)

• Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin