Skip Navigation Links.
Collapse <span class="m110 colortj mt20 fontw700">Volume 12 (2024)</span>Volume 12 (2024)
Collapse <span class="m110 colortj mt20 fontw700">Volume 11 (2023)</span>Volume 11 (2023)
Collapse <span class="m110 colortj mt20 fontw700">Volume 10 (2022)</span>Volume 10 (2022)
Collapse <span class="m110 colortj mt20 fontw700">Volume 9 (2021)</span>Volume 9 (2021)
Collapse <span class="m110 colortj mt20 fontw700">Volume 8 (2020)</span>Volume 8 (2020)
Collapse <span class="m110 colortj mt20 fontw700">Volume 7 (2019)</span>Volume 7 (2019)
Collapse <span class="m110 colortj mt20 fontw700">Volume 6 (2018)</span>Volume 6 (2018)
Collapse <span class="m110 colortj mt20 fontw700">Volume 5 (2017)</span>Volume 5 (2017)
Collapse <span class="m110 colortj mt20 fontw700">Volume 4 (2016)</span>Volume 4 (2016)
Collapse <span class="m110 colortj mt20 fontw700">Volume 3 (2015)</span>Volume 3 (2015)
Collapse <span class="m110 colortj mt20 fontw700">Volume 2 (2014)</span>Volume 2 (2014)
Collapse <span class="m110 colortj mt20 fontw700">Volume 1 (2013)</span>Volume 1 (2013)
American Journal of Applied Mathematics and Statistics. 2019, 7(5), 187-190
DOI: 10.12691/AJAMS-7-5-5
Original Research

An Application of Ergodic Markov Chain to the Process of Teaching Mathematics

Michael Gr. Voskoglou1,

1Department of Mathematical, School of Technological Applications, Graduate Technological Educational Sciences Institute of Western Greece, Patras, Greece

Pub. Date: November 18, 2019

Cite this paper

Michael Gr. Voskoglou. An Application of Ergodic Markov Chain to the Process of Teaching Mathematics. American Journal of Applied Mathematics and Statistics. 2019; 7(5):187-190. doi: 10.12691/AJAMS-7-5-5

Abstract

The principles of social constructivism for learning have become very popular in the recent decades for teaching mathematics. In the present paper a mathematical representation is created of the process of teaching mathematics (based on those principles) by applying an ergodic Markov chain on its steps. This enables the instructor to evaluate the student difficulties in the classroom and therefore to reorganize his (her) plans for teaching the same subject in future. A classroom application to teaching the Conic Sections to engineering students is also presented illustrating the usefulness of our Markov chain model in practice.

Keywords

social constructivism, teaching mathematics, finite Markov chains, ergodic Markov chains

Copyright

Creative CommonsThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

References

[1]  Vygotsky, L. S., Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Translated by Knox and Carol, , : Press, 1978.
 
[2]  Wenger, E., Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, UK, 1998.
 
[3]  Driver, R.; Asoko, H.; Leach, J.; Mortimer, E. & Scott, P., Constructing Scientific Knowledge in the Classroom, Educational Researcher, 23(7), 5-12, 1994.
 
[4]  Voskoglou, M.Gr., Communities of Practice for Teaching and Learning Mathematics, American Journal of Educational Research, 7(6), 186-191, 2019.
 
[5]  Polya G., Mathematical Discovery (2 Volumes), J.Wilet & Sons, New York, 1962/65.
 
[6]  von Glasersfeld, E., Learning as a Constructive Activity, in C. Janvier (Ed), Problems of representation in the teaching and learning of mathematics, Lawrence Erlbaum, Hillsdale, N. J., USA, pp. 3-17, 1987.
 
[7]  Polya G. , On learning, teaching and learning teaching, American. Math. Monthly, 70, 605-619, 1963.
 
[8]  Kemeny, J. G. & Snell, J. L., Mathematical Models in the Social Sciences, Ginn and Company, New York, USA, 1963.
 
[9]  Voskoglou, M.Gr., Finite Markov Chain and Fuzzy Logic Assessment Models: Emerging Research and Opportunities; Createspace.com–Amazon: Columbia, SC, USA, 2017.
 
[10]  Voskoglou, M.Gr., An Absorbing Markov Chain Model for Problem Solving, American Journal of Applied Mathematics and Statistics, 4(6), 173-177, 2016.
 
[11]  Voskoglou, M.Gr., A Markov Chain Application on the Levels of the Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning Objectives, American Journal of Educational Research, 7(3), 294-298, 2019.
 
[12]  Kemeny, J. G. & Snell J. L., Finite Markov Chains, Springer - Verlag, New York, USA, 1976.
 
[13]  Domingos, P., Lowd, D., Markov Logic: An Interface Layer for Artificial Intelligence, Morgan & Claypool Publishers, Williston, VT, USA, 2009.
 
[14]  Zucchini, I.L., MacDonald, I.L., Langrock, R., Hidden Markov Models for Time Series, CRC Press, NY, 2016.
 
[15]  Davis, M.H.A., Markov Models and Optimization, Create Space Independent Publishing Platform, Columbia, SC., USA, 2017.