Appropriating Geometric Series as a Cultural Tool: A Study of Student Collaborative Learning

Autor/in	Carlsen, Martin
Titel	Appropriating Geometric Series as a Cultural Tool: A Study of Student Collaborative Learning
Quelle	In: Educational Studies in Mathematics, 74 (2010) 2, S.95-116 (22 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0013-1954
DOI	10.1007/s10649-010-9230-0
Schlagwörter	Mathematics Education; Problem Solving; Geometric Concepts; Small Group Instruction; Cognitive Processes; Evaluation Methods; Learning Processes + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Mathematische Bildung; Problemlösen; Elementare Geometrie; Cognitive process; Kognitiver Prozess; Learning process; Lernprozess
Abstract	The aim of this article is to illustrate how students, through collaborative small-group problem solving, appropriate the concept of geometric series. Student appropriation of cultural tools is dependent on five sociocultural aspects: involvement in joint activity, shared focus of attention, shared meanings for utterances, transforming actions and utterances and use of pre-existing cultural knowledge from the classroom in small-group problem solving. As an analytical point of departure, four mathematical theoretical components are identified when appropriating the cultural tool of geometric series: (1) estimating of parameters, (2) establishing of the general term, (3) composing of the sum and (4) deciding on convergence. Analyses of five excerpts focused on the students' social processes of knowledge objectification and the corresponding semiotic means, i.e., lecture notes, linguistic devices, gestures, head movements and gaze, to obtain shared foci and meanings. The investigation of these processes unveils the manner in which the students established links to pre-existing mathematical knowledge in the classroom and how they simultaneously combined the various mathematical theoretical components that go into appropriating the cultural tool of geometric series. From the excerpts, it is evident that the students' participation changes throughout their involvement in the problem-solving process. The students are gaining mathematical knowing through a process of transforming and by establishing shared meanings for the concept and its theoretical components. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10