An educationalist's observations on the teaching of mathematical modelling

In this project, we (two mathematicians and two maths educators) analysed lecturers’ views on the aims of mathematical modelling (MM) in Higher Education in Norway and England. We also interviewed lecturers and gained insights into their teaching practices that involved elements of MM. We are interested in the tensions that exist within the activity of teaching MM at university, such as those that exist between multiple, sometimes competing, aims for teaching MM, or between the lecturers’ professional identities and the structure of university degrees. Our conceptualisation of these tensions might help lecturers consider how to overcome obstacles in their own teaching and/or wider university contexts.