The object-tool duality in mathematical modelling. A framework to analyze students’ appropriation of Sankey diagrams to model dynamic processes
Students often do not experience the relevance of learning mathematics. This paper reports on an exploratory case study, in which a class of grade 8 students (n=35) was introduced to Sankey diagrams. The aim was to explore to what extent these students could appropriate Sankey diagrams, meaning: th...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Sociedad Española de Investigación en Educación Matemática
2020-05-01
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| Series: | Avances de Investigación en Educación Matemática |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://aiem.es/article/view/3909 |
| _version_ | 1828129281886126080 |
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| author | Pauline Vos Peter Frejd |
| author_facet | Pauline Vos Peter Frejd |
| author_sort | Pauline Vos |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description |
Students often do not experience the relevance of learning mathematics. This paper reports on an exploratory case study, in which a class of grade 8 students (n=35) was introduced to Sankey diagrams. The aim was to explore to what extent these students could appropriate Sankey diagrams, meaning: they could describe these as objects in themselves and they could use them to model and visualize phenomena relevant to them. Based on Cultural-Historical Activity Theory, we developed an analytical construct defined as the object-tool duality, coordinating mathematics as a set of objects and as a set of tools. The analysis of students’ answers showed that they could use these diagrams as tools to visualize phenomena. When asked to describe the object, all mentioned the tool-side. So, in their appropriation the tool-side came before the object-side. Our contribution is that teaching the tool-side of mathematics
before the object-side may increase students’ sense of the relevance of mathematics, which is a topic to develop for future research.
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| first_indexed | 2024-04-11T16:17:11Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-c3976f2ca608496f854b5190873c3180 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2254-4313 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-11T16:17:11Z |
| publishDate | 2020-05-01 |
| publisher | Sociedad Española de Investigación en Educación Matemática |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Avances de Investigación en Educación Matemática |
| spelling | doaj.art-c3976f2ca608496f854b5190873c31802022-12-22T04:14:28ZengSociedad Española de Investigación en Educación MatemáticaAvances de Investigación en Educación Matemática2254-43132020-05-011710.35763/aiem.v0i17.305The object-tool duality in mathematical modelling. A framework to analyze students’ appropriation of Sankey diagrams to model dynamic processesPauline Vos0Peter Frejd1University of Agder, NorwayLinköping University, Sweden Students often do not experience the relevance of learning mathematics. This paper reports on an exploratory case study, in which a class of grade 8 students (n=35) was introduced to Sankey diagrams. The aim was to explore to what extent these students could appropriate Sankey diagrams, meaning: they could describe these as objects in themselves and they could use them to model and visualize phenomena relevant to them. Based on Cultural-Historical Activity Theory, we developed an analytical construct defined as the object-tool duality, coordinating mathematics as a set of objects and as a set of tools. The analysis of students’ answers showed that they could use these diagrams as tools to visualize phenomena. When asked to describe the object, all mentioned the tool-side. So, in their appropriation the tool-side came before the object-side. Our contribution is that teaching the tool-side of mathematics before the object-side may increase students’ sense of the relevance of mathematics, which is a topic to develop for future research. https://aiem.es/article/view/3909Appropriationmathematical modellingobject-tool dualityrelevance (of mathematics)Sankey diagrams |
| spellingShingle | Pauline Vos Peter Frejd The object-tool duality in mathematical modelling. A framework to analyze students’ appropriation of Sankey diagrams to model dynamic processes Avances de Investigación en Educación Matemática Appropriation mathematical modelling object-tool duality relevance (of mathematics) Sankey diagrams |
| title | The object-tool duality in mathematical modelling. A framework to analyze students’ appropriation of Sankey diagrams to model dynamic processes |
| title_full | The object-tool duality in mathematical modelling. A framework to analyze students’ appropriation of Sankey diagrams to model dynamic processes |
| title_fullStr | The object-tool duality in mathematical modelling. A framework to analyze students’ appropriation of Sankey diagrams to model dynamic processes |
| title_full_unstemmed | The object-tool duality in mathematical modelling. A framework to analyze students’ appropriation of Sankey diagrams to model dynamic processes |
| title_short | The object-tool duality in mathematical modelling. A framework to analyze students’ appropriation of Sankey diagrams to model dynamic processes |
| title_sort | object tool duality in mathematical modelling a framework to analyze students appropriation of sankey diagrams to model dynamic processes |
| topic | Appropriation mathematical modelling object-tool duality relevance (of mathematics) Sankey diagrams |
| url | https://aiem.es/article/view/3909 |
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