Project MatheMat
Learning mathematics with materials
The MatheMat project examines learners’ actions on comparable digital and analogue materials in order to reconstruct the mathematical interpretations underlying these actions. The question is what mathematical interpretations learners make of comparable digital and analogue mathematical situations and whether differences can be observed that are caused by the material. Based on the results of the project’s analyses, recommendations will be made for the use of digital and analogue materials in mathematical learning situations.
With regard to mathematics education research, it is clear that the actions themselves on digital and analogue materials should be more intensively researched and that they should be given great importance for learning mathematics. Based on this need for research, the MatheMat project focuses on the actions of primary school learners in comparable digital and analogue learning situations on mathematical topics from the fields of geometry and elementary descriptive statistics.
A semiotic perspective on mathematics learning according to C. S. Peirce (CP 1931-35) is adopted in order to focus on actions in mathematical situations with different media. This theoretical perspective emphasises the action itself, on so-called diagrams, as a mathematical activity and places actions for learning mathematics in the foreground of interest. Qualitative analyses of learners’ actions in different mathematical situations will be used to investigate what mathematical interpretations learners make of comparable digital and analogue mathematical situations and whether differences can be reconstructed on the basis of the material. Based on the results of the project’s analyses, recommendations will be made for the use of digital and analogue materials in mathematical learning situations.
Selected Publications
Billion, L. (2022). Semiotic analyses of actions on digital and analogue material when sorting data in primary school. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 18(7), em2126. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/12138
Billion, L. (2021). Reconstruction of the interpretation of geometric diagrams of primary school children based on actions on various material – a semiotic perspective on actions. International Electronic Journal of Mathematics Education, 16(3), em0650. https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/11068
Billion, L. & Vogel, R. (2020). Material as an impulse for mathematical activities in primary school – a semiotic perspective on a geometric example. In M. Inprasitha, N. Changsri, & N. Boonsena (Hrsg.), Proceedings of the 44th Conference of the International Group for Psychology of Mathematics Education. PME. https://www.igpme.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Volume-2_final.pdf