0000000000183832
AUTHOR
Olov Viirman
Characteristics of participation - A mathematician and a mathematics educator collaborating on a developmental research project
International audience; In this paper, a developmental research project involving offering mathematical modelling (MM) activities to university biology students is presented, and a particular aspect is studied, namely the project as a collaboration between mathematicians and mathematics educators. The aim of the paper is to investigate what characterizes their participation in the project, and how the characteristics of the project and its development might influence this participation. Interview data as well as observation data from the MM sessions are analysed, and findings show that the mathematics educator served as a broker influencing the practice of the mathematician. It is hoped tha…
Explanation, motivation and question posing routines in university mathematics teachers' pedagogical discourse: a commognitive analysis
This paper investigates the teaching practices used by university mathematics teachers when lecturing, a topic within university mathematics education research which is gaining an increasing intere ...
The development of the mathematical discourse of biology students working with mathematical modelling
International audience; This poster reports from an ongoing developmental research project in which mathematical modelling tasks are introduced to biology students as a means of motivating them to engage more deeply in mathematical studies. In the present report the focus is on how the mathematical discourse of the students develops as they participate in the project. Data consisting of video recordings of four modelling sessions comprising both group work and whole-class discussion will be analysed using commognitive theory. Data collection is still ongoing, and no analyses have been conducted as yet, but preliminary observations indicate cases of commognitive conflict, as the students str…
Approaches to qualitative research in mathematics education: examples of methodology and methods
This book can most easily be described as a handbook of qualitative methodologies in mathematics education. The bulk of the book is composed of 11 parts, each typically covering one methodological ...
The Limit Notion at Three Educational Levels in Three Countries
AbstractThis 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 ex…
‘I’m still making dots for them’: mathematics lecturers’ views on their mathematical modelling practices
Using Cultural-Historical Activity Theory, we analyze lecturers’ views on the aims and teaching practices of mathematical modelling (MM) education in Norway and England. We aim to expose the tensio...
Running to keep up with the lecturer or gradual de-ritualization? Biology students’ engagement with construction and data interpretation graphing routines in mathematical modelling tasks
Abstract Through a commognitive lens, we examine twelve first-semester biology students’. engagement with graphing routines as they work in groups, during four sessions of Mathematical Modelling (MM). We trace the students’ meta-level learning, particularly as they fluctuate between deploying graphs for mere illustration of data and as sense-making tools. We account for student activity in relation to precedent events in their experiences of graphing and as fluid, if not always productive, interplay between ritualised and exploratory engagement with graph construction and interpretation routines. The students’ construal of the task situations is marked by efforts to keep up with lecturer ex…
Programming in mathematics teacher education – a collaborative teaching approach
International audience
Joy of Mathematical Modelling: A Forgotten Perspective?
We argue the relevance of including an affective perspective in the mathematical modelling education research and emphasise its importance for the teaching and learning of mathematical modelling at all levels, especially at the university. Our argument is supported by a recent survey of mathematics lecturers’ views on mathematical modelling, several follow-up interviews, and a review of literature on mathematical modelling that relates to enjoyment, pleasure, and appreciation. Findings from the survey and the follow-up interviews indicate that there is a group of practitioners who hold strong views on the importance of enjoyment in doing and teaching mathematical modelling.
The constitution of the nature of mathematics in the lecturing practices of three university mathematics teachers
International audience; The study reported in this paper investigates how notions of the nature of mathematical knowledge and mathematical objects are articulated in the discursive practices of three university mathematics teachers at a Swedish university. The data consists of video recorded lectures, and the analyses were informed by classifications presented by Lerman (1990) and Davis and Hersh (1981). The results indicate that different epistemological and ontological positions are indeed constituted through the discourse. Although the discourse is generally highly objectified, the ways in which mathematical objects are introduced differ. Mostly the discourse was within an ab-solutist pa…