journal-articles

ZDM, December 2008

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The December issue of ZDM is out, and it contains 12 interesting articles. The theme of the issue is “An Asia Pacific focus on Mathematics Classrooms:

Embodied multi-modal communication

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Julian Williams from University of Manchester (UK) has written an article entitled Embodied multi-modal communication from the perspective of activity theory. This article was published online in Educational Studies in Mathematics last week. Here is the abstract of the article:

I begin by appreciating the contributions in the volume that indirectly and directly address the questions: Why do gestures and embodiment matter to mathematics education, what has understanding of these achieved and what might they achieve? I argue, however, that understanding gestures can in general only play an important role in ‘grasping’ the meaning of mathematics if the whole object-orientated ‘activity’ is taken into account in our perspective, and give examples from my own work and from this Special Issue. Finally, I put forward the notion of a ‘threshold’ moment, where seeing and grasping at the nexus of two or more activities often seem to be critical to breakthroughs in learning.

IJSME, December 2008

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The December issue of International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education has been published. This peer-reviewed journal is sponsored by the National Science Council in Taiwan, and has a particular emphasis on articles “that explore science and mathematics education from different cultural perspectives”. The journal also encourages articles written by authors who do not have English as their first language. This is, in my opinion, a very nice focus from a scientific journal! The issue contains the following articles:

Playing with representations

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Tom Satwicz and Reed Stevens have written an article called Playing with Representations: How Do Kids Make Use of Quantitative Representations in Video Games? The article was published online in International Journal of Computers for Mathematical Learning on Tuesday. Here is a copy of the abstract of their article:

This paper describes the use of quantities in video games by young people as part of a broader effort to understand thinking and learning across naturally occurring contexts of activity. Our approach to investigating the use of quantities in game play is ethnographic; we have followed eight children over a six-month period as they play their own games at home. The data set is composed of video recordings and artifact-based interviews. The concept of disciplined perception is used to understand how quantities are coordinated during game play. The current study shows young people using quantities in games to make predictions and organize their actions based on those predictions. Some ideas based on the study’s findings for using video games in school are discussed.

New journal: Educational Designer

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A new journal for educational research has seen the light of day: Educational Designer! The journal is an online journal, and it was established by the International Society for Design and Development in Education. One of the articles in the first issue is written by Malcolm Swan, mathematics education researcher from the University of Nottingham. The article is concerned with Designing a Multiple Representation Learning Experience in Secondary Algebra. Here is the abstract of Swan’s article (but the entire article is available online!):

This paper describes some of the research-based principles that I use when designing learning experiences to foster conceptual understanding. These principles are illustrated through the discussion of one type of experience: that of sorting multiple representations. I refer to learning experiences rather than tasks, because tasks are only one component of the design. Close attention is also paid to the role of the teacher in creating an appropriate climate for learning to take place.

After a brief excursion into my own theoretical framework, I describe the educational objectives behind my design and provide a detailed explanation of it in one topic, that of algebraic notation.  This is followed with an explanation of the principles that informed the design and the evolution of the task. Finally, I briefly indicate how the design might be generalised to include other topics.

Interdisciplinary instruction

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Claus Michelsen and Bharath Sriraman have written an article called Does interdisciplinary instruction raise students’ interest in mathematics and the subjects of the natural sciences? The article was published online in ZDM on Sunday. Here is the abstract of their article:

This article presents the research project IFUN (the acronym IFUN refers to Interesse og Fagoverskrindende Undervisning i Naturvidenskab and Interesse und Fächerübergreifender Unterricht in den Naturwisseschaften which is Danish and German, respectively, for Interest and Interdisciplinary Instruction in Science and Mathematics)—Interest and Interdisciplinary Instruction in Science (we use the term science as a common denominator for the subjects of physics, chemistry and biology) and Mathematics. The aim of the project was to investigate on how upper secondary students’ interest in the subjects of mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology might be improved by increased instructional interplay and integration between the subjects. The individual student’s interests in interdisciplinary domains of mathematics and science are studied within a three-dimensional framework: (1) the student’s interest in a particular interdisciplinary domain of mathematics and science. (2) The characteristics of a specific learning setting that causes a situational interest in the topic and promotes and supports a shift from catching interest to holding interest. (3) The student’s affiliation with and valuation of mathematics and science. We present the main results from an interest study conducted with a 147 item Likert questionnaire administered to 255 grade 11 students. The results of the study show that students have a high interest in mathematics and are positive towards interdisciplinary instruction. When it comes to the individual student’s affiliation with and valuation of mathematics and science, the study shows that future studies and careers play an important role. We conclude that the results indicate it is possible to expand interest in one subject to another subject through interdisciplinary instruction.

Diagnostic competentces of future teachers

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Björn Schwarz, Björn Wissmach and Gabriele Kaiser have written an article entitled “Last curves not quite correct”: diagnostic competences of future teachers with regard to modelling and graphical representations. The article was published online in ZDM last week. Here is the abstract of their article:

The article describes the results of a national enrichment to the six-country study Mathematics Teaching in the 21st century (MT21)—an international comparative study about the efficiency of teacher education. The enrichment focuses on the diagnostic competence of future mathematics teachers as sub-component of teachers’ professional competence for which the evaluation of students’ solutions of a modelling task about the course of a racetrack is demanded. In connection with two sub-facets of the diagnostic competence, namely the competence to recognise students’ misconceptions and the competence of criteria-guided assessment of students’ solutions, typical answer patterns are distinguished as well as the frequency of their occurrence with regard to future teachers’ phase of teacher education and the level of school teaching they are going to teach in.

Future teachers’ professional knowledge on argumentation and proof

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Björn Schwarz, Issic K.C. Leung, Nils Buchholtz, Gabriele Kaiser, Gloria Stillman, Jill Brown and Colleen Vale have written an article about Future teachers’ professional knowledge on argumentation and proof: a case study from universities in three countries, which was also published online in ZDM last week. It appears that a forthcoming issue of ZDM will have a strong focus on teacher education and teachers’ mathematical content knowledge!

Here is the abstract of the article:

In this paper, qualitative results of a case study about the professional knowledge in the area of argumentation and proof of future teachers from universities in three countries are described. Based on results of open questionnaires, data about the competencies these future teachers have in the areas of mathematical knowledge and knowledge of mathematics pedagogy are presented. The study shows that the majority of the future teachers at the participating universities situated in Germany, Hong Kong and Australia, were not able to execute formal proofs, requiring only lower secondary mathematical content, in an adequate and mathematically correct way. In contrast, in all samples there was evidence of at least average competencies of pedagogical content reflection about formal and pre-formal proving in mathematics teaching. However, it appears that possessing a mathematical background as mandated for teaching and having a high affinity with proving in mathematics teaching at the lower secondary level are not a sufficient preparation for teaching proof.

Content and pedagogical content knowledge in Germany and Hong Kong

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Alexandra Corleis, Björn Schwarz, Gabriele Kaiser and Issic K.C. Leung have written an article called Content and pedagogical content knowledge in argumentation and proof of future teachers: a comparative case study in Germany and Hong Kong. The article was published in ZDM last week, and it provides an interesting comparison between teachers in Germany and Hong Kong. Here is the article abstract:

The results of a comparative case study on mathematical and pedagogical content knowledge in the area of argumentation and proof of future teachers in Germany and Hong Kong are reported in this article. The study forms part of a qualitatively oriented comparative study on future teachers in Australia, Germany, and Hong Kong. Six case studies based on interviews and written questionnaires are described. These case studies show the strengths of the Hong Kong future teachers in mathematical knowledge in the area of argumentation and proof, whereas the three German future teachers perform stronger in the related pedagogical content domain. Furthermore, regarding the German future teachers, it seems that the two domains of knowledge are more strongly connected to each other. The results are interpreted in the light of related research, such as the MT21 study.

Interdisciplinarity in mathematics education

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Bharath Sriraman (the editor of The Montana Mathematics Enthusiast) has written the editorial to a forthcoming issue of ZDM. The leading idea of this special issue is that of interdisciplinarity, and Sriraman’s editorial is entitled: Interdisciplinarity in mathematics education: psychology, philosophy, aesthetics, modelling and curriculum. This special issue (ZDM, vol. 41, nos 1 and 2) will be a double issue with 22 articles! Sriraman presents some interesting numbers about the issue in his editorial, indicating that this is a somewhat special issue:

ZDM, vol 41, nos 1 and 2 = 3 International Symposia + 5 years of collaboration + 22 months of planning + 44 reviewers + 3 rounds of reviews, revisions, commentaries, re-revisions + 24 authors + 1 idiosyncratic guest editor + 1,123 e-mail communications = 22 articles.