Journal of Mathematical Behavior最新文献

Research has demonstrated that problem-posing and problem-solving mutually affect one another. However, the exact nature and full extent of this relationship requires detailed elaboration. This is especially true when problem-posing arises in order to facilitate problem-solving, such as during the investigation of an unfamiliar mathematical property or phenomenon. In this study, groups of participants used scripting to record their mathematical activity as they made conjectures and justified conclusions about sums of consecutive integers. We analyze the unprompted problem-posing found within these scripting journeys using three facets of a problem-posing framework: mathematical knowledge base, problem-posing heuristics, and individual considerations of aptness. Our analysis reveals how these aspects of problem-posing emerge within a mathematical investigation, how they are related to surrounding problem-solving, and the kinds of mathematical insights and realizations that act as catalysts to promote further problem-posing activity.

There is a need for further studies on students’ learning of Differential Equations (DEs), especially in advanced undergraduate and graduate courses. Research on the mathematical education of engineers shows a conflict between students’ demands for practical, contextualized pedagogies and the need for abstract reasoning and appropriate use of mathematical results. Few papers focus on engineering students’ interpretation of theorems and their use as tools in argumentation and problem-solving. This paper takes a sociocultural stance on learning and employs dialogical inquiry – a methodology rooted in Bakhtinian theory, newly developed for collaborative inquiry and qualitative data analysis – to investigate the meanings that senior engineering students made while working on a task designed to evaluate their understanding of Existence and Uniqueness Theorems (EUTs) of solutions of DEs. We identified two important epistemological disconnections that explain the difficulties that some of our students faced in making meaning of solutions of DEs and the EUT.

This study examines the mathematical activity involved in engaging with two tasks designed for introductory linear algebra: the Vector Unknown digital game and the pen-and-paper Magic Carpet Ride task. Five undergraduate students worked on both tasks, and we qualitatively analyzed their strategies using a modified version of a framework from prior literature. In the findings, we report on the seven distinct strategies seen in our data set. We found that while our participants did use some of the same strategies on both tasks, there were also certain strategies which were more characteristic of work on one task or the other. In our discussion, we consider how the design differences in the tasks may influence the strategy differences, and how our findings can be leveraged by instructors of linear algebra in selecting tasks. Finally, we conclude by discussing broader implications for mathematics education research in comparing game-based and non-game-based tasks.

Recognizing and describing children's mathematical thinking in humanizing ways, especially when students engage in confusion, productive struggle, and mistakes, is a complex and challenging process. This paper describes an exploratory, mixed-methods study about how elementary teacher candidates (TCs) describe children's thinking as a right to exercise and to value their humanity when learning mathematics. The study analyzed transcripts from 64 TCs' summative assessments, which consisted of mock parent-teacher conferences (MPTC). Findings suggest that TCs described children's confusion, productive struggle, and mistakes (RotL 1 and 2) as: a teacher's observation, an opportunity for students to correct or clarify their thinking, an opportunity for teachers to adjust instruction or provide support, and as a normal part of the learning process. More importantly, some TCs reassured children that learners have fundamental rights when learning mathematics, especially when feeling confused and claiming a mistake. Implications for research and teacher education are discussed. Keywords: Elementary, teacher education, mathematics, mixed methods, rehumanizing, Torres’ rights of the learner

This study uses Action-Process-Object-Schema theory (APOS) to examine students’ understanding of two-variable function optimization. A genetic decomposition (GD) based on the notion of Schema is proposed. This is a conjecture of mental structures and relations that students may construct to understand the optimization of these functions. The GD was tested with semi-structured interviews with eleven students who had just finished an introductory multivariable calculus course. Results show that giving explicit attention during instruction to the topological structure of the domain of the function to be optimized and the use of GD-based activities was effective in promoting students’ understanding of two-variable function optimization. On the theoretical side, the study contributes to a better understanding of the APOS notions of Schema, Schema-triad, and types of relations between Schema components that have not been used extensively in the literature and that proved to be a powerful tool to model students’ learning.

Many empirical studies documented students’ challenges with operation-choice problems, in particular for multiplication and division with rational numbers. The design principle of problem variation was suggested to overcome these challenges by engaging students in making connections between inverse operation-choice problems of multiplication and division, and between problems with natural numbers and fractions/decimals, but so far, this approach was hardly investigated empirically. In this study, we investigate 17 sixth graders’ modelling pathways through sets of operation-choice problems that are systematically designed according to the variation principle. In the qualitative analysis, we identify five pathways by which students solve the problems and sometimes connect them. While one pathway uses deep relational connections, others only draw superficial and operational connections and others stay with informal strategies without connecting them to formal operations.

The concept of inverse is threaded throughout K-16 mathematics. Scholars frequently advocate for students to understand the underlying structure: combining an element and its inverse through the binary operations yields the relevant identity element. This ‘coordinated’ way of reasoning is challenging for students to employ; however, little is known about how students might reason en route to developing it. In this study, we analyze a teaching experiment with two beginning abstract algebra students through the lens of three ways of reasoning about inverse: inverse as an undoing, inverse as a manipulated element, and inverse as a coordination of the binary operation, identity, and set. In particular, we examine the implications of these ways of reasoning as students work to develop inverse as a coordination. We identify pedagogical tools and facets of instructional design that appeared to support students’ development of inverse as a coordination. We further suggest that all three ways of reasoning can support productive activity with inverses.

Inverse is a critical topic throughout the K–16 mathematics curriculum where students encounter the notion of mathematical inverse across many contexts. The literature base on inverses is substantial, yet context-specific and compartmentalized. That is, extant research examines students’ reasoning with inverses within specific algebraic contexts. It is currently unclear what might be involved in productively reasoning with inverses across algebraic contexts, and whether the specific ways of reasoning from the literature can be abstracted to more general ways of reasoning about inverse. To address this issue, we conducted a standalone literature review to explicate and exemplify three cross-context ways of reasoning that, we hypothesize, can support students’ productive engagement with inverses in a variety of algebraic contexts: inverse as an undoing, inverse as a manipulated element, and inverse as a coordination of the binary operation, identity, and set. Findings also include explicating affordances and constraints for each of these ways of reasoning. Finally, we reflect on when and how standalone literature reviews can serve the purpose of unifying fragmented and obscured insights about key mathematical ideas.

This study compares pre-service mathematics teachers’ (PSMTs) and in-service mathematics teachers’ (ISMTs) noticing of argumentation at the secondary-school level. Thirty-five PSMTs and 32 ISMTs engaged in analyzing argumentation classroom situations (ACSs) using an ACS-report format emphasizing two sub-skills of noticing: attending and interpretation. Analysis of the participants’ ACS reports revealed differences between the two research groups. The ISMTs paid a high level of attention to all four aspects: ‘co-constructing of arguments’, ‘critiquing arguments’, ‘mutual respect’, and ‘working toward consensus-building’, whereas the PSMTs paid a high level of attention to ‘mutual respect’ and ‘co-constructing of arguments’ aspects only. In terms of interpretation, the ISMTs outperformed the PSMTs in interpreting the argumentation through the lenses of ‘task characteristics’, ‘teaching strategies’, and ‘student cognitive characteristics’. The findings are interpreted in light of both theory and practice.