Julie Stalder - What is the place of examples in the teaching of abstract algebra?

epidemes:9205 - epiDEMES, June 30, 2023, 2 | 2023 - https://doi.org/10.46298/epidemes-9205
What is the place of examples in the teaching of abstract algebra?Article

Authors: Julie Stalder 1,2

  • 1 Haute Ecole Pédagogique du Valais [Saint-Maurice]
  • 2 Haute Ecole Pédagogique de Fribourg

Teaching abstract algebra, seen as the study of structures and properties of structures, at a university level appears to be a challenge for both students and faculty. The professors in our study describe this passage through abstraction for the student body as a "killing game", an "impassable wall" or a "leap through abstraction". In this paper, based on a case study (Candy, 2020) we will investigate the choices of professors teaching abstract algebra at university. These professors were chosen because they teach abstract algebra at university in France, and they gave us access to their course corpus and agreed to be interviewed. In this article, we will choose to study in particular the teaching of the concept of ideal. An epistemological analysis will allow us to highlight its central role in the construction of abstract algebra. Then, using the anthropological theory of didactics (Chevallard, 1998), we will try to specify the place of examples and exercises in the praxis of the student body.


Volume: 2 | 2023
Published on: June 30, 2023
Accepted on: June 6, 2023
Submitted on: March 14, 2022
Keywords: [MATH.MATH-HO]Mathematics [math]/History and Overview [math.HO],[MATH.MATH-RA]Mathematics [math]/Rings and Algebras [math.RA]

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