Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Economic Development and Business Culture (ICEDBC 2025)

<Previous Article In Volume
Next Article In Volume>

Exploring Curriculum Development for Mathematics Majors in Finance and Economics: A Case Study of the Course “Optimization Theory”

Authors
Xiaowei Sun1, *
1Central University of Finance and Economics, School of Statistics and Mathematics, Beijing, 102206, China
*Corresponding author. Email: sunxw@cufe.edu.cn
Corresponding Author
Xiaowei Sun
Available Online 26 February 2026.
DOI
10.2991/978-94-6239-604-3_21How to use a DOI?
Keywords
optimization pedagogy; finance-and-economics curriculum; case-based learning; project-based learning; decision analytics; cross-disciplinary training
Abstract

This paper redesigns Optimization Theory for finance-and-economics education. Motivation: growing demand for quantitative talent and expanded institutional support. Objective shifts from formal mastery to problem solving in financial and economic decisions. The framework targets three goals—knowledge, capability, mindset—and replaces “theory–algorithm–proof” with a pipeline of problem, model, method, application. Four modules operationalize the design: Foundations, Linear Programming, Nonlinear Programming, Dynamic and Integer Programming. Each uses authentic data, economic interpretation, and hands-on computation. Pedagogy centers on two reforms: coherent case-based instruction and project-based learning across the full workflow. Constraints include case access, data availability, instructor capacity, and student readiness. Mitigations include scaffolded cases, open-data pipelines, targeted clinics, and co-teaching. The approach links rigor to relevance and builds decision-analytic competence.

Copyright
© 2026 The Author(s)
Open Access
Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

Download article (PDF)

<Previous Article In Volume
Next Article In Volume>
Volume Title
Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Economic Development and Business Culture (ICEDBC 2025)
Series
Advances in Economics, Business and Management Research
Publication Date
26 February 2026
ISBN
978-94-6239-604-3
ISSN
2352-5428
DOI
10.2991/978-94-6239-604-3_21How to use a DOI?
Copyright
© 2026 The Author(s)
Open Access
Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

Cite this article

risenwbib
TY  - CONF
AU  - Xiaowei Sun
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/02/26
TI  - Exploring Curriculum Development for Mathematics Majors in Finance and Economics: A Case Study of the Course “Optimization Theory”
BT  - Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Economic Development and Business Culture (ICEDBC 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 194
EP  - 199
SN  - 2352-5428
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-604-3_21
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-604-3_21
ID  - Sun2026
ER  -