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Mapping variation in children’s mathematical reasoning: the case of ‘What else belongs?'
journal contribution
posted on 2017-06-01, 00:00 authored by Colleen Vale, Wanty WidjajaWanty Widjaja, Sandra Herbert, Yook-Kin Loong, Leicha BraggExplaining appears to dominate primary teachers’ understanding of mathematical reasoning when it is not confused with problem solving. Drawing on previous literature of mathematical reasoning we generate a view of the critical aspects of reasoning that may assist primary teachers when designing and enacting tasks to elicit and develop mathematical reasoning. The task used in this study of children’s reasoning is a number commonality problem. We analysed written and verbal samples of reasoning gathered from children in Grades 3 and 4 from three primary schools in Australia and one elementary school in Canada to map the variation in their reasoning. We found that comparing and contrasting was a critical aspect of forming conjectures when generalising in this context, an action not specified in frameworks for generalising in early algebra. The variance in children’s reasoning elicited through this task also illuminated the difference between explaining and justifying.
History
Journal
International journal of science and mathematics educationVolume
15Issue
5Pagination
873 - 894Publisher
SpringerLocation
Berlin, GermanyPublisher DOI
ISSN
1571-0068eISSN
1573-1774Language
engPublication classification
C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal; C Journal articleCopyright notice
2016, Ministry of Science and Technology, TaiwanUsage metrics
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