The Limit Notion at Three Educational Levels in Three Countries

Abstract

This paper documents how the limit concept is treated in high school, at a university and in teacher education in England, France and Sweden. To this end we make use of vignettes, data-grounded accounts of the situation at the three levels in the three countries. These are analysed using the Anthropological Theory of the Didactic (ATD). While university praxeologies are relatively similar across the three countries, greater differences manifest themselves in high school and teacher education. For instance, at the high school level, in France a local praxeology on the limits of sequences is taught, which is not the case in England or Sweden. Results from the analysis of limits are extrapolated to comment on implications for the teaching of calculus, and for teacher education, in the three countries. The paper also raises methodological issues in our approach.