A PICTURE IS WORTH A 1000 WORDS – THE ROLE OF VISUALIZATION IN MATHEMATICS LEARNING

Abstract

This paper describes some important aspects concerning the role of visualization in mathematics learning. We consider an example from integral calculus which focuses on visual interpretations. The empirical study is based on four problems related to the integral concept that highlight various facets of visualization. In particular, we are interested in the visual images that students use for working on specific problems and how they deal with given visualizations. The findings show the importance as well as the difficulties of visualization for the students