Kerstin PetterssonAssociate professor
About me
I am associated professor in Mathematics Education. My main research focus is university students' learning, especially their conceptions of concepts in calculus.
Teaching
I am a examiner of student teachers’ diploma theses. I also supervise three doctoral students.
Research
My research is focused around university students conceptions, in particular their conceptions of ’Threshold Concepts’. A threshold concept is a concept that represents troublesome knowledge but has the potential to transform the understanding, not only of the concept but on the whole subject area to which the concept belongs. A threshold concept may be considered to be a ’portal’ or a ‘conceptual gateway, that opens up previously inaccessible ways of thinking about something. It is a threshold to cross but when passed through the portal a transformed view of the subject will be revealed.
My thesis ’Algorithmic, intutive and formal aspectsof mathematics in dynamic interplay: A study of students’ use of their conceptions in calculus’ (Göteborg University, 2008) includes two studies, one on engineering students’ conceptions of limit and integral, one on how students in a mathematics programme use their conceptions of function and derivative.
In a project I have explored student teachers’ conceptions of function and the transforming of their understanding during a semester when taking mathematics courses. I have ongoing projects on students learning in a small-group setting and on students conceptions of proof by induction.
