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- Title
Mapping Variation in Children's Mathematical Reasoning: The Case of 'What Else Belongs?'.
- Authors
Vale, Colleen; Widjaja, Wanty; Herbert, Sandra; Bragg, Leicha; Loong, Esther
- Abstract
Explaining 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.
- Subjects
MATHEMATICS education; PRIMARY school teachers; PRIMARY education; ALGEBRA education in elementary schools; TEACHING methods
- Publication
International Journal of Science & Mathematics Education, 2017, Vol 15, Issue 5, p873
- ISSN
1571-0068
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1007/s10763-016-9725-y