Teaching mathematics for economists: partial results of the implementation of a study and research path

Abstract

This work emerges from the problem of the monumentalisation of knowledge. This didactic phenomenon, introduced in the anthropological approach to the didactic of mathematics, describes the school study of mathematics from an analogy with a visit to a museum. Mathematics is studied as if it were a work of art that is only available for veneration and has no other use than to be exhibited. This phenomenon is more acute in careers where mathematics takes on more of an instrumental role, as in the case of the training of economists. The aim of this article is to present the partial results of the implementation of a type of mathematics teaching known as research and study paths (RSP), carried out in the first year of a university in Argentina. This type of teaching is proposed to address the phenomenon of monumentalisation. The implementation of the RSP was carried out during the first 4-month period of 2021 (16 weeks), with a group of 35 students from a Mathematical Analysis course. This course is common in the training of professionals in Economics: Public Accountants, Business Administration graduates and Economics graduates. The SRP links Economics and Mathematics and its generating question is Q0: How much benefit do producers and consumers receive from a competitive market? The results obtained so far are promising, in terms of the generating power of the question and the concreteness of the study of mathematics in a co-disciplinary way to Economics. The group of students achieved relative autonomy in the use of mathematics, not only to solve problems but also to generate economic models, communicate and defend the results of their productions.