Conceptualizing the Realistic Mathematics Education Approach in the Teaching and Learning of Ordinary Differential Equations

The undergraduate curriculum in differential equations has undergone important changes in favor of the visual and numerical aspects of the course primarily because of recent technological advances. Yet, research findings that have analyzed students' thinking and understanding in a reformed setting are still lacking. This paper discusses an ongoing developmental research effort to adapt the instructional design perspective of Realistic Mathematics Education (RME) to the teaching and learning of differential equations at Ewha Womans University. The RME theory based on the design heuristic using context problems and modeling was developed for primary school mathematics. However, the analysis of this study indicates that a RME design for a differential equations course can be successfully adapted to the university level.