tandfonline.com – Everyday Examples About Basis From Students: An Anti-Deficit Approach in the Classroom

Abstract

In this paper we share a classroom implementation of a task about basis in linear algebra, which was originally developed for research about the topic. The task asks students to construct an everyday situation that captures the definition of basis, and then to critique it mathematically. Using this task, the original research study uncovered learning resources from a group of undergraduate women of color. A mathematician who was not involved in the original study was given the opportunity to work with a group of underrepresented minority students in a linear algebra course. She was inspired by the findings of the study and decided to implement the task independently in her course. She shares how she did it, how her students responded to the task, and how it helped her further develop her understanding of an anti-deficit perspective in teaching mathematics.