Many disciplines make use of mathematical concepts. However, there are often discrepancies between the way mathematical concepts are understood and taught in mathematics and the way they are used in other disciplines. The literature suggests that such discrepancies might make it hard for students in mathematics service courses to make a connection between the mathematical concepts taught and the way they are used in the students’ major disciplines. We investigated this hypothesis for one specific example in mathematics for economics students – the derivative and its interpretation commonly used in economics as the amount of change when increasing the production by one unit. We conducted an interview study investigating to what extent economics students can make a connection between the mathematical concept of the derivative and this common economic interpretation of the derivative. This study provides empirical evidence that it is actually difficult for economics students to make this connection, even though it was covered in their calculus course. In particular, the study reveals difficulties students have when trying to make this connection, which could be addressed in teaching.

许多学科都使用数学概念。然而，在数学中理解和教授数学概念的方式与它们在其他学科中的使用方式之间经常存在差异。文献表明，这种差异可能会使数学服务课程的学生难以将所教授的数学概念与其在学生主要学科中的使用方式联系起来。我们为经济学学生的数学中的一个具体例子研究了这一假设——经济学中常用的导数及其解释，作为将产量增加一个单位时的变化量。我们进行了一项访谈研究，调查经济学学生可以在多大程度上将导数的数学概念与导数的这种常见经济解释联系起来。本研究提供的经验证据表明实际上，经济学学生很难建立这种联系，即使他们的微积分课程已经涵盖了这一点。特别是，该研究揭示了学生在尝试建立这种联系时遇到的困难，这可以在教学中解决。