Sequence of didactic activities to promote the construction of the notion of ordinary differential equation

Abstract

This paper presents an advance in the proposal design of a sequence of didactic activities, which purpose is to promote the construction of the notion of ordinary differential equation in upper level students. We start from the problem detected in some investigations, principally in the project Inquiry-Oriented Differential Equations (IO-DE) and in the works of Perdomo, regarding the teaching of Differential Equations, which is based on promoting a rote learning of mathematical definitions and procedures. Our work is based in the theory of Realistic Mathematics Education (RME) and the Theory of Semiotic Representations (TSR).