Reasoning on transition from manipulative strategies to general procedures in solving counting problems

We describe the procedures used by 11- to 12-year-old students for solving basic counting problems in order to analyse the transition from manipulative strategies involving direct counting to the use of the multiplication principle as a general procedure in combinatorial problems. In this transition, the students sometimes spontaneously use tree diagrams and sometimes use numerical thinking strategies. We relate the findings of our research to recent research on the representational formats on the learning of combinatorics, and reflect on the didactic implications of these investigations

Ontological beliefs and their impact on teaching elementary geometry

This paper proposes a conceptual framework to classify ontological beliefs on elementary geometry. As a first application, this framework is used to interpret nine interviews taken from secondary school teachers. The interpretation leads to the following results: (a) the ontological beliefs vary in a broad range, denying the assumption that a similar education provokes analogue opinions; and (b) ontological beliefs have a remarkable influence on the standards of proofs and on the epistemological status of theorems, and also on the role of drawing, constructions and their descriptions, media, and model building processes

Use of dragging as organizer for conjecture validation

In this article, we report on a study centred on the teaching and learning of proof in which there is evidence that dragging becomes a source for significant student participation in the validation of conjectures. The findings highlight the teacher’s use of dragging as an organizer of the activity, in cases when there are conjectures that students consider acceptable but for which they do not have the theoretical elements to validate them

Layers of generality and types of generalization in pattern activities

Pattern generalization is considered one of the prominent routes for in-troducing students to algebra. However, not all generalizations are al-gebraic. In the use of pattern generalization as a route to algebra, we —teachers and educators— thus have to remain vigilant in order not to confound algebraic generalizations with other forms of dealing with the general. But how to distinguish between algebraic and non-algebraic generalizations? On epistemological and semiotic grounds, in this arti-cle I suggest a characterization of algebraic generalizations. This char-acterization helps to bring about a typology of algebraic and arithmetic generalizations. The typology is illustrated with classroom examples

Justifications-on-demand as a device to promote shifts of attention associated with relational thinking in elementary arithmetic

Student responses to arithmetical questions that can be solved by using arithmetical structure can serve to reveal the extent and nature of relational, as opposed to computational thinking. Here, student responses to probes which require them to justify-on-demand are analysed using a conceptual framework which highlights distinctions between different forms of attention. We analyse a number of actions observed in students in terms of forms of attention and shifts between them: in the short-term (in the moment), medium-term (over several tasks), and long-term (over a year). The main factors conditioning students´ attention and its movement are identified and some didactical consequences are proposed

First-grade Latino English language learners' performance on story problems in spanish versus english

To explore whether teaching English Language Learners (ELLs) with an emphasis on English story problem is appropriate, we compared the performance of a group of Latino first graders when working in Spanish and in English on two equivalent sets of story problems. The students’ performance was slightly higher in English than in Spanish, but lower than monolingual students from other studies. ELLs’ success in English indicated that the children’s knowledge of conversational English was sufficient to comprehend story problems, leading us to conclude that teaching through story problems is a viable approach with ELLs

Instrumented activity and semiotic mediation: two frames to describe the conjecture construction process as curricular organizer

We document part of the process through which conjectures produced by students, with the aid of the dynamic geometry software Cabri, when they solve proposed geometric problems, become a curriculum organizer in the classroom. We first focus on characterizing students’ instrumented activity recurring to utilization schema (Rabardel, 1995, in Bartolini Bussi and Mariotti, 2008), and then describe the teacher’s content management through which the ideas produced by the students become key elements of knowledge construction

On understanding and interpretation in mathematics: An integrative overview

For decades, understanding has been considered as a basic theme of interest and a research object in Mathematics Education. In this theoretical overview paper we present a integrative framework for organizing the diversity of results that emerge from the different studies on mathematical understanding and its interpretation. The proposal is applied onto a representation of relevant literature that has arise in the area over the last two decades. With this overview we seek to provide an useful reference for: (a) advancing towards a better insight of understanding in mathematics, (b) establishing the specific limitations and open questions that demarcate the boundaries of understanding and interpretation in mathematics, and (c) orienting its future study using a shared base of consolidated knowledge

Analyzing the proving activity of a group of three students

We present an analysis and outline an evaluation of the proving activity of a group of three university level students when solving a geometrical problem whose solution required the formulation of a conjecture and its justification within a specific theoretical system. To carry out the analysis, we used the model presented by Boero, Douek, Morselli and Pedemonte (2010) that centers on the arguments and rational behavior. Our analysis indicates that the student‘s proving activity is close to the one we used as a reference

Errors in algebraic statements translation during the creation of an algebraic domino

We present a research study which main objective is to inquire into secondary school students´ ability to translate and relate algebraic statements which are presented in the symbolic and verbal representation systems. Data collection was performed with 26 14-15 years old students to whom we proposed the creation of an algebraic domino, designed for this research, and its subsequent use in a tournament. Here we present an analysis of the errors made in such translations. Among the obtained results, we note that the students found easier to translate statements from the symbolic to the verbal representation and that most errors in translating from verbal to symbolic expressions where derived from the particular characteristics of algebraic language. Other types of errors are also identified. KEYWORDS: Algebraic language, domino, errors, translation between representation systems, verbal representation