How students conceive function: A triarchic conceptual-semiotic model of the understanding of a complex concept.

This study explores conceptions for function amongst 164-second year students of the Department of Education at the University of Cyprus and their relationship with students’ abilities in dealing with tasks involving different modes of representations of function. The test that was administered to the students included recognition tasks given in various representations and questions requesting definition and examples of function’s applications in real life situations. Results have shown that students’ definitions and examples of the notion are closely related to their ability to use different modes of representations of function. These three factors, i.e., definitions given by the students, functions considered by them as examples of application in real life situations, and different representations of functions, seemed to contribute in their own unique way to students’ acquisition of this complex concept. Thus, support was provided for the use of a triarchic conceptual-semiotic model of the concept of function, which enables students’ thinking and understanding of the notion to be analyzed and described across these three features

Mapping kindergartners’ quantitative competence

In this study we investigated the structure of quantitative competence of kindergartners by testing a hypothesized four-factor model of quantitative competence consisting of the components counting, subitizing, additive reasoning and multiplicative reasoning. Data were collected from kindergartners in the Netherlands (n = 334) and in Cyprus (n = 304). A confirmatory factor analysis showed that the four-factor structure fitted the empirical data from the Netherlands. For the Cyprus data a one-factor structure was found to have a more adequate fit. Regarding the effect of country on performance, a comparison at item level showed that the kindergartners in the Netherlands outperformed those in Cyprus in the majority of quantitative competence items. Analyses of variance revealed for each country a significant effect of kindergarten year on performance, with children in K2 (second kindergarten year) outperforming those in K1 (first kindergarten year). A statistical implicative analysis at item level revealed that in both countries the relevant implicative chain, showing what successful solving of an item implies for correct solving of another item, reflects by and large the sequential steps mostly followed in teaching kindergartners early number. This sequence starts with counting and subitizing, then continues with additive reasoning and finally multiplicative reasoning. These implicative chains also clearly show that the development of early quantitative competence is not linear. There are many parallel processes and cross-connections between the components of quantitative competence.publishedVersionPaid Open Acces

Процедура внесення змін до конституції: порівняльно-правовий аспект

Розглядається процедура внесення змін до Конституції, проводиться її порівняльно правовий аналіз, досліджуються особливості цієї процедури в різних країнах. Ключові слова: Конституція, зміни до Конституції, суб’єкт законодавчої ініціативиРассматривается процедура внесения изменений в Конституцию, проводится е сравнительно правовой анализ, исследуются особенности этой процедуры в различных странах. Ключевые слова: Конституция, изменения в Конституции, субъект законодательной инициативы.In article procedure of modification of the Constitution is considered, its ratherlegal analysis is carried out, features of this procedure in the various countries are investigated. Key words: Constitution, modification of the Constitution

Survey on Early Childhood Mathematics Education at ICME-14

This paper is about a survey to be presented at the 14th International Congress on Mathematics Education (ICME-14), which addresses the latest developments on Early Childhood Mathematics Education. The relevance of early mathematics learning and teaching in mathematics education research is explained and an overview of the work done by the Survey Team on this specific theme is described

Topic Study Group No. 1: Early Childhood Mathematics Education (Up to Age 7)

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. The book presents the Proceedings of the 13th International Congress on Mathematical Education (ICME-13) and is based on the presentations given at the 13th International Congress on Mathematical Education (ICME-13). ICME-13 took place from 24th- 31st July 2016 at the University of Hamburg in Hamburg (Germany). The congress was hosted by the Society of Didactics of Mathematics (Gesellschaft für Didaktik der Mathematik - GDM) and took place under the auspices of the International Commission on Mathematical Instruction (ICMI). ICME-13 brought together about 3.500 mathematics educators from 105 countries, additionally 250 teachers from German speaking countries met for specific activities. Directly before the congress activities were offered for 450 Early Career Researchers. The proceedings give a comprehensive overview on the current state-of-the-art of the discussions on mathematics education and display the breadth and deepness of current research on mathematical teaching-and-learning processes. The book introduces the major activities of ICME-13, namely articles from the four plenary lecturers and two plenary panels, articles from the five ICMI awardees, reports from six national presentations, three reports from the thematic afternoon devoted to specific features of ICME-13. Furthermore, the proceedings contain descriptions of the 54 Topic Study Groups, which formed the heart of the congress and reports from 29 Discussion Groups and 31 Workshops. The additional important activities of ICME-13, namely papers from the invited lecturers, will be presented in the second volume of the proceedings

Effects of reading picture books on kindergartners’ mathematics performance

This article describes a field experiment with a pretest–posttest control group design which investigated the potential of reading picture books to children for supporting their mathematical understanding. The study involved 384 children from 18 kindergarten classes in 18 schools in the Netherlands. During three months, the children in the nine experimental classes were read picture books. Data analysis revealed that, when controlled for relevant covariates, the picture book reading programme had a positive effect (d = .13) on kindergartners’ mathematics performance as measured by a project test containing items on number, measurement and geometry. Compared to the increase from pretest to posttest in the control group, the increase in the experimental group was 22% larger. No significant differential intervention effects were found between subgroups based on kindergarten year, age, home language, socio-economic status and mathematics and language ability, but a significant intervention effect was found for girls and not for boys. (IPN/Orig.

Are registers of representations and problem solving processes on functions compartmentalized in students' thinking?

El objetivo de este artículo es doble. En primer lugar, se hace un resumen superficial de investigaciones sobre la compartimentación de diferentes registros de representación, así como de las aproximaciones de resolución de problemas, relacionadas con el concepto de función. En segundo lugar, se aportan elementos que clarifican las posibles maneras que permiten superar el fenómeno de la compartimentación. Investigaciones precedentes muestran que la mayoría de los alumnos de secundaria e, incluso de universidad, tienen dificultades para cambiar, de forma flexible, los sistemas de representación de funciones, de seleccionar y de utilizar aproximaciones apropiadas de resolución de problemas. Los resultados de dos estudios experimentales previos, llevados a cabo por miembros de nuestro equipo de investigación, centrados sobre la utilización de aproximaciones no tradicionales de enseñanza y sobre el empleo de software matemático, proveen pistas preliminares, en cuanto a la manera de cómo puede superarse con éxito el fenómeno de la compartimentación