302-Anonymous Manuscript - 1055-1-10-20120701

Instructions for authors, subscriptions and further details:
http://redimat.hipatiapress.com
Editorial
Javier Díez-Palomar1
1 ) Departamento de Didáctica de las Ciencias Experimentales y las

Matemáticas, Universidad de Barcelona, España.
Date of publication: June 24th, 201 2
To cite this article: Díez-Palomar, J. (201 2). Editorial. Journal of

Research in Mathematics Education, 1 (2), 98-1 04. doi:
1 0.4471 /redimat.201 2.06
To link this article: http://dx.doi.org/1 0.4471 /redimat.201 2.06
PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE
The terms and conditions of use are related to the Open Journal System
and to Creative Commons Non-Commercial and Non-Derivative License.
REDIMAT - Journal ofResearch in Mathematics Education Vol. 1 No. 2
June 2012 pp. 98-104
Editorial
Javier Díez-Palomar
Universidad de Barcelona
E s un placer introducir el segundo número del primer volumen

de nuestra revista. Ya han pasado cuatro meses desde la última
vez que salió REDIMAT. La andadura que iniciamos en su
momento sigue con fuerza e ilusión. Me alegra comprobar la buena sa-
lud de la que goza nuestro ámbito de estudio. La investigación en edu-
cación matemática, una disciplina que a menudo se referencia como
muy nueva o reciente, no cesa de crecer y crecer. Tenemos trabajos in-
teresantes y serios que están abriendo puertas que conducen a afianzar
nuestra disciplina. Revistas ya consolidadas, y nuevas revistas que apa-
recen en el horizonte, que ayudan a consolidar nuestra disciplina y a
abrir nuevos espacios de discusión científica seria y rigurosa. Necesita-
mos de esos espacios para mejorar nuestro trabajo todavía más si cabe,
para compartir y aprender, para que la investigación se conecte con la
práctica, y la práctica se base en evidencias científicas, no en lo que au-
tores de referencia internacional denominan como ocurrencias (Gómez,
Puigvert, & Flecha, 2011).
REDIMAT inició su andadura con esta voluntad muy clara. Y segui-
mos contribuyendo a ello. Estamos contentos de recibir propuestas, y
fomentar el diálogo igualitario basado en lo que Habermas (1987) llama
argumentos con pretensiones de validez. Habermas es uno de los autores
más referenciados en las ciencias sociales. Su trabajo desde la teoría de
al argumentación nos ha permitido clarificar las bases epistemológicas,
ontológicas y metodológicas de la discusión científica. La argumentación
se orienta al entendimiento. En una situación de diálogo, lo que vale es el
mejor argumento, no la posición de poder de quien emita el argumento.
2012 Hipatia Press

ISSN 2014-3621
DOI: 10.4471/redimat.2012.06
99 Javier Díez-Palomar - Editorial
Un artículo es válido en la medida que aporta evidencias sólidas sobre las

que sustentar las contribuciones que hace; no por la posición que ocupe la
persona que lo ha escrito. El conocimiento avanza por vericuetos a veces
no del todo claros, pero el contraste de ideas, el intercambio de argumen-
tos, el diálogo, siempre ha estado en el origen de su avance.
Esto ha sido así siempre, y precisamente en matemáticas tenemos
buena prueba de ello. El teorema de Pitágoras, que puede que sea uno de
los temas más populares de las matemáticas, ya existía mucho antes de
que Pitágoras viviera. De acuerdo a historiadores de la matemática co-
mo Boyer (1969) por ejemplo, el conocimiento de la relación particular
entre los lados de un cierto triángulo cuyos lados miden 3, 4 y 5 unida-
des (respectivamente) es algo que ya podemos encontrar en vestigios
que nos han llegado de la antigua Mesopotamia a través de piezas de ar-
cilla como la tablilla “Yale o YBC 7289” conservada en la Universidad
de Yale, o la “Plimpton 322”, que está en la Universidad de Columbia.
Ambas están datadas entre el 1900 o 1600 a.C., mucho antes del periodo
en el que se supone que vivió Pitágoras de Samos (Boyer, 1969; Gonzá-
lez Urbaneja, 2008). Los egipcios, también antes de que Pitágoras exis-
tiera, usaban la relación del triángulo rectángulo de lados 3,4 y 5 (o
triángulos de dimensiones proporcionales). Lo hacían para trazar las lin-
des de los campos entre una inundación y otra, y para diseñar las bases
de las grandes pirámides. Pitágoras de Samos viajó a estos territorios, y
es posible que tuviera contacto con este tipo de conocimientos, cuando
hizo la que se considera la primera demostración formal del teorema que
lleva su nombre1 . De lo que no cabe duda es que ese conocimiento surge
(y se transmite) a través del contacto entre culturas, entre personas, que
comparten conocimiento.
El diálogo era una de las características de la civilización helena. Fue
una de las cosas que aprendieron los romanos de los griegos. El ágora
clásica era espacio de debate público (político), pero también era testigo
de aprendizaje a través del diálogo socrático y platónico. Quienes hemos
visto Ágora, la película, seguro que recordamos la escena en la que Hipatia
de Alejandría está discutiendo sobre cuestiones matemáticas con sus discí-
pulos. La escuela de Hipatia tuvo mucha influencia en su época, y estudian-
tes de todo el mundo romano acudían a ella. Hipatia es la primera mujer
matemática de la historia (o como mínimo, la primera de la que se tiene no-
ticia). En un momento de declive de la civilización “occidental”, Hipatia
REDIMAT - Journal ofResearch in Mathematics Education, 1 (2) 100
dejó tras de sí importantes contribuciones a las matemáticas y al conoci-

miento del mundo.
Después de una etapa que en los libros de historia se suele denotar como
“oscura”, donde el conocimiento se encerraba en las celdas y en los pasi-
llosde los conventos de clausura (Boyer, 1969), el esfuerzo de personas
como Leonardo de Pisa (Fibonacci), Luca Pacioli, Leonardo da Vinci,
Tartaglia, Cárdano, Ferrari, Recorde, o Copérnico, entre otros muchos,
abrió las puertas a un Renacimiento en todos los ámbitos del saber, no
solo en las matemáticas. Muchos de ellos fueron grandes viajeros: Fibo-
nacci, por ejemplo, que era hijo de un mercader, viajó por Egipto, Siria
y Grecia, y tomó clases con un maestro musulmán. Estuvo en contacto
con el conocimiento matemático acumulado por generaciones. Sus con-
tribuciones se estudian hoy en día en nuestras escuelas, y describen
abundantes fenómenos de la naturaleza.
La matemática es deudora de los diálogos entre clásicos de todos los
tiempos, como puedan ser Newton y Leibniz, por ejemplo. El conoci-
miento se ha ido nutriendo de esta comunicación. Newton escribió “a
hombros de gigantes”. Casi doscientos años después Robert Merton,
uno de los mejores sociólogos de la ciencia, escribió A hombros de gi-
gantes (1965), donde vuelve a recoger la importancia del diálogo en el
desarrollo de la ciencia.
En el siglo XIX la práctica más común eran los intercambios en los
“clubs” o “sociedades” científicas que proliferaron en diversos países.
Einstein en pleno siglo XX escribe sobre su pertenencia a la prestigiosa
Academia Prusiana de las Ciencias (de la que más tarde renunciará, por
motivos de discriminación contra los judíos). Los encuentros anuales,
nuestros congresos, conferencias, simposios, jornadas, animan y profun-
dizan en ese diálogo científico en pos de nuevas fronteras.
No hace muchos años era común enviarse misivas por correo, y abun-
dar en el género epistolar. La historia está repleta de casos de discusio-
nes matemáticas a través del correo. Quién no recuerda la
correspondencia entre Sophie Germain y Lagrange, o entre Ramanujan
y Hardy. Son ejemplos claros de cómo los diálogos conducen a nuevos
territorios matemáticos, y hacen que el conocimiento avance.
Ahora disponemos de la plataforma que nos ofrecen las tecnologías de
la comunicación, para intercambiar los resultados de nuestras investiga-
ciones. Tenemos Internet y todas las herramientas tecnológicas que se
sustentan sobre la red virtual, que nos permiten comunicarnos a veloci-

dad “del pensamiento”: con un “clic” del ratón enseguida enviamos un
email, una intervención en un foro de discusión, un nuevo hashtag en
Twitter, o una entrada en Facebook.
Pero también tenemos las revistas científicas. En este segundo número
del primer volumen, REDIMAT presenta cuatro nuevos artículos. En el
primero de ellos, Bill Zanher nos ofrece una interesante discusión sobre
el efecto que tienen los diferentes contextos en potenciar el aprendizaje
de las matemáticas. Sitúa su trabajo en un curso de matemáticas de no-
veno grado (chicos de 14 a 15 años), que están estudiando álgebra. Zan-
her analiza lo que sucede cuando facilita la actividad matemática
enmarcada en dos contextos diferentes: el caso de la fabula de la tortuga
y la liebre, y un problema relacionado con pupitres hexagonales. Desde
una perspectiva basada en la perspectiva socio-cultural y en concreto en
la teoría de la acción, Zanher analiza cómo responden los estudiantes a
contextos reales para ellos, y contextos que no lo son. El caso de los pu-
pitres resulta conocido y, por tanto, comprensible para todos ellos. Sin
embargo, la fábula de la tortuga y la liebre es desconocida. En ese caso,
Zanher relata como dedican una parte del tiempo de aprendizaje a en-
tender la fábula, mientras que en el caso de los pupitres hexagonales, la
discusión gira en torno a las matemáticas desde el primer momento
prácticamente. La familiaridad del contexto es clave para entender la
producción de diálogo matemático. Zanher concluye con interesantes
implicaciones para la enseñanza y el aprendizaje de las matemáticas de
este hecho.
En el segundo artículo de este nuevo número de REDIMAT Nielce
Lobo da Costa y Maria Elisabette Brisola Brito Prado analizan las inte-
racciones de un grupo de estudiantes de magisterio en un entorno de
aprendizaje colaborativo. Para ello construyen una herramienta de análi-
sis cualitativo, que les permite dibujar las redes interactivas que se esta-
blecen dentro de cada grupo, según un conjunto de 15 aspectos con los
que caracterizan la práctica colaborativa de aprendizaje. Su análisis es
interesante por cuanto que ponen en primer término elementos clave de
la interacción entre los actores del aula de matemáticas. Los mapas que
construyen de cómo se relacionan dichos elementos sugieren conexio-
nes inesperadas (y por eso mismo, interesantes) como la relación que se
establece entre las acciones docentes, la reflexión sobre las prácticas y
el desarrollo de la autonomía; y también evidencian otras que no por in-

tuidas dejan de ser menos significativas, como es el caso de la necesidad
de confianza para que haya o se produzca aprendizaje con el “otro”.
Las autoras concluyen que existe una conexión entre las redes colabora-
tivas de aprendizaje, como espacios colectivos que aparecen en el con-
texto de la formación de profesorado, y su potencial para potenciar el
desarrollo profesional del profesorado.
En el tercer artículo José Carlos Cortés Zavala presenta un trabajo so-
bre el uso de artefactos concretos en actividades de geometría analítica.
En concreto, se centra en el caso de la elipse. Después de una contex-
tualización histórica que sitúa al lector/a en el desarrollo de diferentes
artefactos para analizar polígonos, Cortés explica cómo seleccionó dos
de ellos, el elipsógrafo de palancas y colisa Inwards y el antiparalelo-
gramo articulado de Van Schooten. El objetivo del estudio que nos pre-
senta aquí es experimentar actividades que puedan servir como recurso
didáctico para acercar a los estudiantes de bachillerato a la demostración
y la construcción de conceptos en el ámbito de la geometría analítica, y
en concreto en el caso de al elipse. El autor detalla todo el proceso de
construcción de los artefactos, y cómo los estudiantes usaron ambas he-
rramientas para responder a una serie de preguntas planteadas en una
hoja de actividades didácticas. Los diálogos que se incluyen en la discu-
sión de los resultados son realmente interesantes, y permiten seguir las
discusiones matemáticas que se produjeron entre los estudiantes. Emer-
gen múltiples ideas geométricas (congruencia, simetría, etc.). Cortés
concluye reflexionando en el impacto que tiene el uso de una metodo-
logía de trabajo en grupos pequeños, de manera cooperativa.
El cuarto y último artículo, escrito por Kai-Ju Yang continúa en el ám-
bito del aprendizaje de la geometría. Pero esta vez se nos remite al ám-
bito de las creencias y de las actitudes. Yang analiza las implicaciones
que tienen sobre la preparación de programas para la formación de pro-
fesorado. El autor repasa las contribuciones de estudios previos sobre el
papel que juegan las creencias y las actitudes en el aprendizaje de las
matemáticas. Partiendo de dicho análisis, Yang se pregunta de dónde
proceden las actitudes negativas hacia las matemáticas que tienen mu-
chos estudiantes. Para responder a esta pregunta, recurre al modelo ela-
borado por McLeod (1989) para analizar las creencias y las actitudes,
que distingue entre representaciones, discrepancias y metacognición.
Una vez establecido el marco de análisis, Yang presenta las actividades

que usó para realizar su estudio, centradas en doblar piezas de papel a
fin de encontrar lugares geométricos (incentro, bisectriz) y demostrar
propiedades entre ellos. En el trabajo de campo Yang se centra en tres
tipos de cuestiones: maneras de aprender geometría, logros en el ámbito
de la geometría, y reflexiones sobre el aprendizaje de esta materia. Las
citas que se incluyen de las entrevistas con los estudiantes de formación
de profesorado son de gran interés para analizar el impacto sobre el
aprendizaje (sobre los logros) de la geometría tanto de las creencias pre-
vias sobre la posibilidad de cada cuál de realizar correctamente las acti-
vidades, como de las emociones que produce esta materia. Yang
concluye que la manera de presentar los conceptos geométricos influye
de manera importante en la respuesta de los estudiantes; así como la fal-
ta de conexión entre las expectativas que uno/a tiene un los logros reales
que alcanza. El análisis de la auto-evaluación del aprendizaje y la con-
ciencia de las reacciones emocionales hacia la geometría que hace Yang
le lleva a confirmar el enfoque de McLeod (1989) sobre el papel que
juegan las creencias y las actitudes en el aprendizaje de las matemáticas.
Además de los tres elementos del enfoque de McLeod, Yang identifica
un cuarto aspecto, la comprensión, que juega un papel crucial en el
aprendizaje de la geometría. Entender o no entender, marca una diferen-
cia fundamental en el aprendizaje; y se conecta directamente con los
otros elementos del enfoque basado en creencias y actitudes.
Estos cuatro artículos ofrecen múltiples aportaciones interesantes, que
seguro que van a animar debates que nos lleven a comprender más en
profundidad los elementos que participan en la enseñanza de las ma-
temáticas, para mejorar nuestro conocimiento en base a evidencias
científicas, y sobre ello también nuestras prácticas en el aula. Dejo pues
la palabra a los lectores y lectoras. Disfruten de la lectura.
Referencias
Boyer, C.B. (1969). A History ofMathematics. New York: John Wiley
and sons.
Gomez, A., Puigvert, L., Flecha, R. (2011). Critical communicative
methodology: Informing real social transformation through
research. Qualitative Inquiry, 17(3), 235-245.
González Urbaneja, M. (2008). El teorema llamado de Pitágoras. Una

historia geométrica de 4.000 años. Sigma, 32, 103-130.
Habermas, J. (1987). La teoría de la acción comunicativa (2 vols.).
Madrid: Taurus.
Merton, R. (1965). On the shoulders of giants. New York: The free
press.
Notas
1No se han conservado documentos sobre la vida de Pitágoras, por lo que todo cuanto
gira a su vida y obra está rodeado de claroscuros. Boyer (1969) recomienda atribuir los
hechos y descubrimientos a los “pitagóricos”, los miembros de la escuela que creo Pitá-
goras, a pesar de que habitualmente se suele atribuir al “maestro” todos los descubri-
mientos.
“Nobody Can Sit There”: Two Perspectives on how Mathematics

Problems in Context Mediate Group Problem Solving
Discussions
William Zahner1
1 ) Department of Curriculum and Teaching, Boston University.
To cite this article: Zahner, W. (201 2). "Nobody can sit there": Two
perspectives on how mathematics problems in context mediate group
problem solving discussions. Journal of Research in Mathematics
Education, 1 (2), 1 05-1 35. doi: 1 0.4471 /redimat.201 2.07
To link this article : http://dx.doi.org/1 0.4471 /redimat.201 2.07
June 2012 pp. 105-135
“Nobody Can Sit There”:

Two Perspectives on how
Mathematics Problems in
Context Mediate Group
William Zahner
Boston University
Abstract
This study examines how a group of bilingual ninth grade algebra students
discussed two word problems stated in terms of "real life" contexts. Using a
lens of mediated action (Wertsch, 1998), the analysis reveals two distinct ways
that the problem contexts influenced the group's mathematical reasoning. In
one problem, the problem context afforded particular ways of interpreting the
given inscriptions, which had benefits as well as costs. In the other problem, the
unfamiliar story and terminology appeared the hinder the group's mathematical
reasoning. These two forms of context mediation are discussed in light of
current research on the use of real life problems in mathematics education.
Keywords: mathematical discussions, mediation, word problems, algebra,
group discussions
2012 Hipatia Press

ISSN 2014-3621
DOI: 10.4471/redimat.2012.07
106 William Zahner - Mediation ofProblem Contexts
S olving mathematics story problems set in an imaginary context

is a common experience for school children. Prior research
suggests that giving students mathematics problems set in a
familiar context can promote their problem solving success by
increasing their motivation and drawing upon their expertise from
outside of school (Baranes, Perry, & Stigler, 1989; Moschkovich, 2002;
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 1989, 2000). However,
the semantic complexities and non-mathematical considerations that can
arise when solving problems with real life context may also obscure
mathematical relationships, leading students away from providing the
expected responses (Boaler, 1993; Gerofsky, 1996; Martiniello, 2008;
Walkerdine, 1988).
This paper examines two ways that the “real life” contexts of word
problems entered bilingual students’ discussions of mathematics story
problems. Using the lens of mediated action (Vygotsky, 1978; Wertsch,
1991, 1998), the analysis examines how drawing upon “real life”
contexts given in the mathematics problems both facilitated and
hindered the group’s problem solving efforts. In particular, detailed
analysis of the students’ talk during problem-based group discussions
shows how the given problem contexts had a complex interaction with
the reasoning and resources that students drew upon while solving two
non-routine mathematical problems. This analysis shows how the
problem contexts mediated the students’ problem solving discussions in
at least two distinct ways. This observation leads to a discussion that can
deepen the mathematics education community’s understanding of the
affordances and constraints of solving mathematics problems stated in
terms of “real life” context.
The primary data for this paper are drawn from a study of how high
school algebra students learned and reasoned about rates during group
discussions. The data are used to develop and to illustrate a theoretical
connection with the notion of mediated action. While the larger study
investigated the relationship between group interactions and students’
mathematics learning, this paper focuses on the narrower question, How
might adding “real life context” to a mathematics problem afford and
constrain students’ group problem solving?
The theoretical framework below introduces mediated action
(Wertsch, 1991, 1998) from cultural historical activity theory. Then a

brief literature review examines results from previous studies on how
students solve mathematics problems stated with real life context. Next,
a case study of how one group of students solved problems in context is
introduced to develop a distinction between two influences of “problem
context” that may be conflated. Finally, the discussion returns to the
theoretical and practical considerations that arise from the data and
theory presented in this paper.
Theoretical Framework
The overarching study, from which this paper was drawn, was rooted in
a sociocultural approach to teaching and learning mathematics (Forman,
1996; Moschkovich, 2004). The central concept from sociocultural
studies that is used here is mediation. Mediated action has been used
since Vygotsky and colleagues argued that human thinking and goal-
directed actions are inseparable from the cultural tools employed to
reach goals (Luria, 1979; Vygotsky, 1978, 1986). Language is one
essential tool for thought, and Vygotsky (1986) argued that children’s
use of “egocentric speech” was evidence that children internalize a
socially shared tool for thinking. However, the mediation of cultural
tools in human thinking and action goes beyond the use of language in
verbal thought. Wertsch (1991, 1998) showed how human actions, such
as pole vaulting and doing mathematical calculations, are also instances
of mediated action. He argued that goal-directed actions, for example,
performing multi-digit multiplication, cannot be analyzed without
accounting for the mediation of cultural tools (e.g., decimal numbers,
algorithms, & calculators) used to reach those goals.
Wertsch’s (1998) example of multidigit multiplication is helpful for
illuminating how doing calculations is a form of mediated action that is
deeply shaped by the use of cultural tools. Most adults who have learned
a standard multiplication algorithm in school could compute 343 × 822
= 281 946 without the aid of a calculator. However, the multiplication
algorithm, and even the decimal number system used to represent the
numbers, are culturally-developed meditational tools. The affordances
of these tools is made visible when the problem is stated in a different
way, for example, CCCXLIII × DCCCXXII.
Numerous mathematics education researchers who use a semiotic

perspective have drawn on this framework of mediated action to
analyze children’s mathematical activity (e.g., Radford, 2001; Radford,
Bardini, & Sabena, 2007; Walkerdine, 1988). One important insight
from these studies has been that mathematical activities of all kinds
have semiotic entanglements—the notion that mathematics can happen
independently of human language and sign systems is a myth.
Moreover, mathematics itself is transformed as humans’ semiotic
resources expand. For example Hegedus and Moreno (2011) have
argued that new digital technologies are transforming the very nature
of what is called mathematics, what constitutes mathematical activity,
as well as the possibilities for mathematics teaching and learning. This
paper follows in this tradition, but rather than analyzing high
technology and digital media, it focuses on how the stories and
hypothetical situations given in word problems mediated students’
mathematical activity. Wertsch’s (1991, 1998) notion of mediation
provides a framework to analyze how the imagined problem context
shaped students’ group discussions and influenced the mathematical
conclusions they reached.
This paper is drawn from a larger study of how students learned key
concepts in algebra by engaging in discussions with a small group of
peers. In the larger study, learning was considered as a process of
appropriating and using culturally shared tools for reasoning (Forman,
1996; Moschkovich, 2004; Rogoff, 1990). For example, in the algebra
classrooms where this study was situated, the students appropriated
ways of reasoning about the slope of linear functions by focusing on
the “rise” and the “run” between two points on the line.
The definition of “problem context” for this analysis captures one
meaning of “context.” This paper focuses on the context as the “cover
story” in word problems (Gerofsky, 1996). In particular, the problem
context is defined as the characters, objects, and relationships
introduced in the problem statement. There are many other possible
meanings for “context” in studies of learning. For example, the school
setting, and the social composition of the group of students working
together are also part of the problem-solving context. Of course, this
choice of focus on problem contexts only addresses part of the
overarching situation when students work together as a group to solve
mathematics problems. However, this choice was necessary in order to

make this analysis manageable, and to allow for a detailed explication
of how seemingly inconsequential details of mathematics word
problems can shape students’ discussions.
Prior Research
Stating problems with stories has been part of mathematics since
antiquity (Gerofsky, 1996; Schoenfeld, 1992). Oftentimes the stories
that appear in word problems are unrealistic, and the stories are
carefully constructed to require the use of a recently learned algorithm
(Schoenfeld, 1992). Part of a student’s task when solving such
problems is to learn to attend to certain features in the problem, and to
recognize what quantities and operations should be combined to
produce the desire result. Another important skill that students develop
through solving problems is learning when it is permissible to ignore
the context.
Despite the fact that the problem context in word problems is often
regarded as superfluous, there is some evidence that the context within
which a mathematics problem is presented influences children’s
solutions and their mathematical success. Researchers who focus on
the interaction between “everyday” and “academic” mathematics have
found that many people and students can do certain mathematical tasks
in everyday settings that they find impossible when given as a school
mathematics problem (Brenner, 1998; Carraher & Schliemann, 2002;
Moschkovich, 2002; Saxe, 1995). For example, in one landmark study,
Carraher, Carraher, and Schliemann (1985) discovered that children
who sold food on the streets in Brazil were quite adept at doing the
arithmetic necessary to make change in commercial transactions, but
these children could not do the “same” calculations in decontextualized
form with paper and pencil. Carraher, Carraher, and Schliemann argued
that changing the problem context from a selling problem to a school
problem also changed the arithmetic resources that children used to do
their calculations. Therefore, the statement of problems in context cued
the children’s problem solving choices and success in each condition.
This work has been followed by multiple studies probing the
affordances of using real life contexts as a tool for teaching school
mathematics (Boaler, 1993; Brenner, 1998; Civil, 2002; Civil &

Andrade, 2002; Gerofsky, 1996; Greer, 1997; Moschkovich &
Brenner, 2002; Saxe, 1995). For example Brenner (1998) studied the
affordances of using coins to teach decimal numbers. Many elementary
school curricula in the US have used coins to represent the decimal
number system and place value concepts. Brenner conducted an
ethnographic study of how Hawaiian children used money, and she
found that the way Hawaiian children used money outside of school
did not match the way that coins were used to teach mathematical
concepts in school. One specific mismatch was that the children
treated a quarter (25 cents) as the basic unit of money in their
purchases, while the school curriculum treated the penny as the basic
unit (Brenner, 1998). One curriculum-focused response to this work
has been a push to use more realistic “real life” contexts in
mathematics curricula, which focus on building meaningful
connections between important mathematical concepts and the real life
context of school children’s lives (Boaler, 1993; Greer, 1997; National
Council ofTeachers of Mathematics, 1989, 2000).
A related body of research from the cognitive framework has also
examined the costs and benefits of adding context and personalizing
mathematics word problems (e.g., Koedinger & Nathan, 2004;
Walkington & Maull, 2010). As with the findings from the
socioculturally focused research, these studies have shown that some
forms of context can help students reach correct solutions, especially
when a problem is stated in a way that draws on students’ resources
and that motivates the student to persevere. In particular, Koedinger
and Nathan found that students were able to solve more complex
problems when they were stated as stories, as opposed to bare
algebraic equations. In sum these studies indicate that, under felicitous
conditions, adding context can aid students’ mathematical problem
solving.
However, there are important limitations inherent to the use of
context. One critical issue is that the use of contextualized problems
might interfere with the intended mathematics curriculum. While
students may draw on certain aspects of the problem context as an aid
to solve complex word problems, students are also expected to know
when to ignore real life considerations in order to solve a problem
using the intended mathematical algorithm. Both Gerofsky (1996) and

Walkerdine (1988) observed this can be problematic for children,
especially those who are not aware of the game, or whose out of
school language practices are not congruent with the use of
langauge(s) in school. At times, using too much knowledge about the
context can actually result in students giving wrong answers.
The issue of adding context to word problems can take on an added
layer of complexity for students who are learning the language of
instruction (Abedi & Lord, 2001; Martiniello, 2008). Since contexts
for mathematics problems are usually stated in the form of a written
story, adding context might also add unnecessary linguistic complexity
to mathematics problems. This linguistic interference can, in turn,
obscure the mathematical proficiency of students who are learning the
language of instruction and result in educators making incorrect
inferences about students’ mathematical knowledge. For example,
Martiniello investigated how English Learners (ELs) performed on a
state-wide mathematics assessment in the US that included some
problems stated as stories. She found that ELs did worse than would be
expected by their mathematical proficiency on questions that used
unfamiliar terminology. In follow up interviews with selected students,
she found that although the students knew the mathematical concept
being assessed (e.g., using the counting principle to compute
combinations), they were unable to answer questions on these topics
because of the language used to state these questions.
In light of the complexity of findings in prior research, it may be too
simplistic to ask whether adding context to mathematics problems will
help or hinder students’ performance. A more apposite question may be
to ask how adding context to a problem might influence student
reasoning. This study sets out to add to the literature by addressing this
open question.
Data & Methods
The data for this paper are drawn from a study of how bilingual ninth
grade algebra students learned to reason with linear functions.
Specifically the study examined how the students generalized from
data and reasoned about the relationships between the rate of change
and slope of linear functions through engaging in small group

discussions with their peers. Data collection in the larger study traced
the reasoning of two groups of four students each in one algebra class
across six weeks of class meetings. The data collected included video
recorded observations of classroom interactions, as well as video and
written work from a series of focused group problem solving sessions
recorded outside of class. The in-class observations provided data on
the naturalistic setting of the classroom and the types of reasoning the
students did there. The out of class group discussions sessions
provided more focused data on how the students reasoned through
tasks, and how their reasoning developed across the six week data
collection time period. This analysis focuses on the students’ out-of-
class discussions.
Figure 1. Timeline of data collection
The Setting and Study Design

The class that was observed was a bilingual (English-Spanish) algebra
class taught by a highly regarded, experienced, and qualified teacher.
The school population was over 90% Latino/a, and 77% of the
students qualified for a free or reduce priced lunch, indicating that they
were from low socioeconomic backgrounds. Thirty five percent of the
school population was classified as English Learners. In the focal
classroom, about one-third of the students were recent immigrants
from Latin America who were learning English (the language of
instruction), while other students were bilingual. The bilingual
students, who were classified by the school as proficient in English,
were either born in the United States but grew up in Spanish-speaking

households, or they had immigrated to the United States and learned
English several years before this study. The data collection time period
coincided with a six week classroom unit when the students were
learning to graph lines, write linear equations, and interpret linear
functions. The students’ mathematics curriculum highlighted the use of
applied problem solving and using real-life data to learn these concepts
(Fendel, Resek, & Alper, 1996).
In order to document changes in the students’ reasoning about linear
functions across time, each group solved a set of three tasks at the
start, middle and end of the data collection time period. These group
problem-solving discussions took place outside of class, and the
students were instructed to discuss each problem as a group, come to
consensus, and then write one shared answer for their group. The
problems that the students solved together were specially chosen to
highlight key conceptual relationships, such as the relationship
between the slope of a linear function and the rate of change of the
dependent variable (two of the problems that will be discussed in more
detail in this paper appear in the Appendix). In order to make valid
inferences based on these students’ reasoning, these problems were
drawn from assessments used in prior research on student reasoning
about generalization, rates, and linear functions. The problems were
similar to the type of problems the students solved in class, but they
were chosen to highlight key conceptual relationships.
These group discussions were video recorded and transcribed with a
focus on capturing the propositional content of the students’ talk.
Copies of each group’s agreed-upon written answers, as well as their
scratch work, were collected. Finally, the author was present and
recorded field notes during each discussion, but he did not intervene in
the group discussions.
Focal Group
This case study analysis focuses on how one of the two groups used
the given problem contexts as a resource while reasoning through the
tasks. This group was selected for several reasons. First, the focal
group engaged in extensive discussions of the problems, while the
other group tended to have shorter discussions with less dialogue about
each problem. Second, this group included four bilingual students who
were all classified as “Fully English Proficient,” which decreases (but
does not eliminate) the probability that the students’ level of
proficiency in English would interfere with their mathematical
reasoning on these questions written in English. Finally, this group
made the most references to the problem context in their discussions,
so its discussions help illuminate the theoretical issues discussed in
this paper. Although the focus of this analysis is on one group of
students, both of the groups in the study did refer to the real life
contexts of the problems, and they drew upon mathematical reasoning,
as they worked through these problems.
The focal group consisted of two boys, Mateo and Jaime, and two
girls, Krystal and Susanna. Mateo and Krystal were immigrants from
Spanish-speaking countries, and all four of the students reported
speaking both Spanish and English outside of school. The group
members primarily spoke English when working in their group, and
they were given all in-class assignments in English. The teacher
selected this group to participate in this study by assembling groups of
students who she thought would work well together, and who
represented a range of prior achievement in her class. Mateo and
Krystal had relatively high grades, while Jaime and Susanna had
relatively low mathematics grades.
This analysis focuses on the transcripts and written work produced
during three out-of-class problem-solving sessions among the focal
group. Additionally, the videos and field notes were used as a resource
throughout the analysis process to clarify meanings in the transcripts
and in the students’ written work. The group solved three problems
about rate and accumulation across eight weeks, repeating each
problem at least twice. Although the students solved the same problem
twice, they did not simply recall their answers to each question from
their first solution. For example, the group engaged in three sustained
discussions of a problem called Hexagon Desks, using over ten
minutes to discuss the problem each time they attempted it.
Tasks
This analysis focuses primarily the group’s discussion of the problem
Hexagon Desks. The group’s discussion of a second problem called
The Tortoise and the Hare is also presented to highlight contrasts in
how the problem context can mediate students’ mathematical problem
solving.
Hexagon Desks was adapted from a released eighth grade item from
the National Assessment of Educational Progress, and variations of
this problem have appeared in numerous other forms in research and
curricula. Hexagon Desks focused on using multiple representations to
explore a linear relationship between the length of a chain of hexagon
shaped desks and the number of students who could sit at the chain of
desks. The Tortoise and the Hare was adapted from previous research
on student interpretations of motion graphs, and it asked students to
interpret two velocity-time graphs plotted on the same axes. In each
task, the sequence of the questions was designed to elicit how students
reasoned about rates in relation to slope (on Hexagon Desks) and
accumulation (on The Tortoise and the Hare).
This analysis focuses on the mathematical content of the students’
discussions, treating the group discussion as the unit of analysis. The
students’ talk during the discussion is treated as evidence of the
group’s reasoning. The design of the discussion sessions, requiring the
group to agree on an answer, provided a rich source of talk because the
students were forced to reconcile differences and come to an
agreement before writing their final, agreed upon answer.
Analysis
The data analysis followed three steps. First, the students’ talk was
transcribed with a focus on capturing the propositional content of the
students’ talk. A total of 180 minutes of group talk was transcribed
(though not all of that time was dedicated to talking about
mathematics). Second, the transcripts were divided into segments
corresponding with the students’ talk about each part of the problems.
For example, one segment included all of the group’s talk about
question two from Hexagon Desks. The third stage of analysis was
identifying segments where the students made reference to the problem
context, either implicitly or explicitly. All references that the students

made to the problem context were catalogued. Finally, all of the
references to context were coded according to whether referring to the
context helped, hindered, or had a neutral effect on the students’
problem solving success. Problem solving success was measured by
whether the group was eventually able to provide correct answers to
the questions on each task.
Findings
Written Responses
In total, the group’s written responses to Hexagon Desks task showed
some development as well as a fair amount of consistency across the
three times they attempted the problem. Each time the group attempted
this problem, they successfully completed the table in question one
which asked them to show how many people could sit around a row of
three, four, five, six and seven hexagon desks arranged in a row. The
only exception was that the group answered “31” in the last row of the
table during Discussion 2 because they added five rather than four to
26, the previous value. On question 2, the students also successfully
found the number of students who could sit at a row of 100 desks
(402) each time they solved this problem. The group also successfully
solved question three, and they derived an equation for how many
people could sit at n desks (total = 4n + 2), during all three discussions
of this problem. Question four required the students to graph a set of
points, and, as expected, the group succeeded in this task each time
they discussed it. The group skipped question five, which required
computing the slope of a line, during their first discussion. However,
during their second and third discussions, after slope had been taught
in their class, the students successfully found the slope, and they wrote
it in fraction form as 4/1. The group skipped question six, which asked
them to interpret the slope of a linear function in terms of the problem,
each time they solved Hexagon Desks. Finally, during their second and
third discussions of this task, the group successfully solved question
seven, which required them to generalize this relationship for
octagons.
The group produced only one set of written responses to The Tortoise
and the Hare because they ran out of time when the problem was given
to them a second time. They successfully answered questions one
through three on the task, but their written answers had incorrect units,
indicating that they struggled to reason with the velocity as a quantity
on the y-axis. This response pattern makes sense because reasoning
about intensive quantities is more challenging for students than
reasoning about extensive quantities (Schwartz, 1988). On questions
four through ten, the students agreed on incorrect answers, but they
also showed signs of confusion for these questions. These relatively
difficult questions required the students to reason about intervals
(rather than points), and to work backwards and find the distance
traveled as the product of velocity and time. Finally, in addition to their
mathematical struggles on this problem, it appeared that the words
“tortoise” and “hare” were unfamiliar to two of the group members.
The Mediation of the Problem Context in Discussions

While the students referred to the imagined story in each problem
when discussing their solutions, their reliance on the context, and their
relative success by using the given contexts, revealed two distinct
ways that problems in context can mediate students’ mathematical
reasoning. One influence of the problem context was that it drew the
students’ attention to reason about the given problem in particular
ways related to the story. This was evidenced by the students’ use of
examples and terminology indicating that they were drawing on the
context as a resource. By imagining how many students could sit at a
row of desks, the context on Hexagon Desks may have helped the
group reason through this problem. On the converse side, the other
evidence of the mediation of context was through the evident
confusion on the part of the students with unfamiliar vocabulary and
an unrealistic situation in The Tortoise and the Hare.
For both Hexagon Desks and The Tortoise and the Hare, the
imaginary context did not always help the group reach a correct
response, nor did it necessarily hinder their progress. However, the
influence of the problem context, and the mediation of the imagined
situation differed in important ways. One way the context mediated the
group’s reasoning on Hexagon Desks was that the story allowed the
students to reason about perimeter of a chain of hexagons by
imagining a person sitting at each external segment on the figure. In
this case, the imaginary context promoted a particular way of looking
at the given inscriptions. A second way the context mediated the
group’s reasoning was evident in The Tortoise and the Hare. For this
problem, both the challenging vocabulary (tortoise and hare) as well as
the implausible story appeared to hinder the group’s mathematical
reasoning because it distracted from their mathematical focus. Below I
illustrate how the problem context mediated the group’s discussions on
both problems.
The Context as a Resource on Hexagon Desks
The students did not appear to have any struggles imagining the given
context in Hexagon Desks, which might indicate that the idea of
pushing desks together was relatively familiar. The students’
familiarity with the story in Hexagon Desks is affirmed by the contrast
with how they talked about the unfamiliar and unrealistic context from
The Tortoise and the Hare (see below). At key points early in their
discussions of this problem the group members did use the story about
seating students around desks as a resource for their mathematical
reasoning. The majority of the group’s references to the story occurred
as they completed the table in question one. In particular, as the group
members filled in the “number of students” column in the table, they
discussed whether any students could sit at the spaces represented by
vertical segments in the diagrams. They agreed that “nobody” could sit
at the segments where two desks meet. They also noted that
“somebody” could sit at the two vertical segments at the ends of the
row of hexagon desks.
Excerpts 1 and 2 below contain two instances where the group
referred to the context as they solved this problem. Excerpt 1 is from
the group’s first discussion of this problem while Excerpt 2 is from
their third discussion of the problem. In both cases they pointed to the
chain of hexagons given on their paper as they made reference to the
story about seating students at a row of hexagon shaped desks. Figure
2 illustrates where Mateo and his group mates were pointing as they
used the words “somebody” and “nobody” to reason about this

problem.
“Somebody”
can sit here
“Nobody” can
sit here
How the students used "somebody" and "nobody" in relation to the

Figure 2.
Hexagon Desks problem.
Excerpt 1 is from the group’s first discussion of the problem. The three
group members who were present that day, Mateo, Krystal, and Jaime,
each appeared to use slightly different methods for solving the
problem. Krystal drew chains of hexagons and counted sides. Mateo
appeared to be coordinating the image and the story about seating
students around desks to devise pattern. Jaime derived a recursive rule
for the pattern, noting that the first term was six, and subsequent terms
were four more than the previous terms.
In the following excerpts, clarifying comments are enclosed in
double parenthesis. Square brackets are used to show the start of
overlapping talk. The students used some Spanish words in Excerpt 1
and translations are in double parentheses with quotations immediately
after the terms in Spanish.
Excerpt 1
The group discusses the table in Hexagon Desks during Discussion 1
1. Mateo It’s gonna be eighteen ((referring to row 4 of the

table))
2. Krystal Huh?
3. Mateo It’s gonna be eighteen because you know [nobody’s
gonna sit
4. Krystal [but how does that work
5. Jaime Oh it's some pattern
6. Krystal I know its a [pattern but
7. Mateo [no it- [[you
8. Jaime [[its going by six y luego ((“and then”)) by [four
9. Krystal: [four five ((continues counting silently))
10. Mateo six plus four is ten. Ten plus for is fourteen
11. Krystal ((speaking louder)) Twenty twenty one twenty two
twenty three twenty four. I was right
12. Mateo No but watch
13. Jaime xxx
14. Krystal Watch one two three four five six seven eight nine
ten eleven twelve thirteen fourteen fifteen sixteen seventeen
eighteen nineteen twenty twenty one twenty two three ((short
pause)) damn it I was wrong its twenty [t-
15. Mateo [but no cause you add another one and nobody's
gonna be sitting on that one ((pointing at Krystal's paper))
16. Krystal I know but right now it's like yeah it works
Krystal was attempting to count the perimeter of a chain of five
hexagons, but she appeared to get lost while counting to 22 in lines 11
and 14. Mateo then made an explicit reference to the problem context
in line 15 to explain why Krystal’s answers were wrong. After Mateo’s
comment, Krystal took up his idea and verified that it agreed with the
numerical patterns she observed for this problem. Therefore, Except 1
illustrates how the story appeared to help the students agree on the
correct solutions to question 1 from Hexagon Desks.
Excerpt 2 is from this group’s third discussion of this problem.
During their first discussion they agreed that each row of the “number
of students” column in the table should be four more to the previous
row, giving answers of 18, 22, 26, and 30. However, during their
second discussion (which occurred between the discussions in
Excerpts 1 and 2), the group agreed upon a slightly different rule: each
row was four more than the previous row, except for the last row,
which was five more than the previous. Thus they incorrectly wrote 31
rather than 30 in the final row during their second discussion of this
problem. For their third time working through this problem, the group
returned to the question of whether to “add four” or “add five” to each
row in the table.
Prior to the exchange in Excerpt 2, the group agreed that the
“number of students” in each row of the table should be four more than
the previous row. However, Mateo also argued that the number of
students in the last row of the table should again be 31—five more than
in the previous row—because “somebody can sit here [on the last
vertical spot].” Krystal disagreed, and Excerpt 2 shows the start of the
ensuing discussion. Ultimately this group agreed that the final answer
for the last row of the table should be 30 (i.e., four more than the
previous row), but only after several minutes of discussion. The group
came to consensus after Krystal drew out a chain of seven hexagons
and counted the perimeter of all seven of them.
Excerpt 2
The completes the table in Hexagon Desks during Discussion 3
1. Mateo You just add four to all of them

2. Krystal Then you add four and then you add like two
((possibly referring to the general rule, perimeter = 4n+2))
3. Mateo The last one is five
4. Krystal What?
5. Mateo See six plus four is ten plus four is fourteen and the
last one you just add five that's all these ((pointing to end of
chain))
6. Susana Why add five?
7. Krystal Really? yeah
8. Mateo ‘Cause it that's the last one and somebody can sit on
this ((points at the end of the chain of hexagons))
The question of whether “somebody” or “nobody” can sit in a
particular spot in the imagined chain of hexagon desks illustrates one
way the problem context and everyday language mediated the
mathematical discussion among this group of students. This use of the
context both afforded and constrained the students’ reasoning. The
affordance was that by imagining students sitting at a desk, they were

able to reason about the perimeter of the chain of hexagons. However,
imagining people sitting at the desks also introduced a subtle problem.
While it is true that “nobody” can sit at the intersection of two desks in
the Hexagon Desks problem, the word nobody is slightly problematic
because two spaces are removed each time two desks are pushed
together. The intersection of two desks removes two sides from the
available seating, so the net change in the number of seats (i.e. the
perimeter) is (new perimeter) = (previous perimeter) + 6 − 2. Mateo’s
use of “nobody” may have obscured this relationship because
“nobody” does not quantify how many people cannot sit at an
intersection. This issue may help explain why the group debated
whether to “add four” spaces or “add five” new spaces with each desk,
even though they quickly identified the numerical pattern “add four” in
the first few rows of the table.
For the remaining problems in Hexagon Desks, the group appeared
to shift in their reasoning and in their reliance on the context. While
they relied on the images of chains of hexagons to answer questions
two and three on the task, they made relatively few references back to
the problem context. For example, they did not comment on the
absurdity of making a row of 100 desks. Moreover, the group also
skipped question six, which explicitly asked the students to make a
connection between the problem context and the slope of the linear
function (defined on the natural numbers) that models this situation.
The Interference of Context on The Tortoise and The Hare
While the prosaic problem context in Hexagon Desks appeared to be
familiar to the students, the more whimsical context in The Tortoise
and the Hare was not. In this case, the story did not serve as a resource
for the students; in fact, the unfamiliar context may have detracted
from the students’ mathematical reasoning. The students’ distraction
illustrates a second, clearly unhelpful, way that problem contexts can
mediate students’ mathematical problem solving.
None of the students indicated that they had heard the fable of the
tortoise and the hare as they discussed this question (though knowing
the fable was not necessary to solve this problem). The students’ lack
of familiarity with the context resulted in a qualitatively different form
of mediation of the problem context. First, the students used some time
to discuss the meaning of the unfamiliar terms “tortoise” and “hare.”
In Excerpt 3 below, Jaime struggled with pronunciation while reading
“tortoise,” and Krystal asked her group mates what a tortoise was.
Likewise Mateo corrected Krystal’s use of the word “bunny” for
“hare” and the students discussed the Spanish and English words for
tortoise and hare. Second, the students’ few attempts to use the context
as a resource to reason about the mathematics were unsuccessful. For
example, in line 12 of Excerpt 3, Krystal appeared to try to draw on
her knowledge of rabbits to reason about the plausibility of the hare’s
graph. Unfortunately, it is not clear whether Krystal’s erroneous
reasoning is a result of misunderstanding the context or of
misunderstanding the graph.
Excerpt 3
The group reads the problem statement in The Tortoise and The Hare
1. Jaime ((reading the problem)) One day tom the tortoise

((struggles with pronunciation of tortoise))
2. Krystal Tor tus a ((sounding out the word, pronounces
incorrectly))
3. Mateo Tortoise ((Pronounces correctly))
4. Jaime Tortoise and Harold the hare race ((pause)) ran a
race. Tom got a running start but they both ran across the
starting line at the same moment when the times said zero
seconds. They ran along a straight road for ten seconds and the
graph below shows Tom and Harold's velocity during the ten
second race.
5. Krystal So oh this is tortoise the ((pointing at image))
6. Mateo It's Tom is a tortoise
7. Krystal What's a tortoise?
8. Mateo Its a [turtle
9. Krystal [A turtle?
10. Mateo Yeah but uh bigger [[xxx
11. Jaime [[Who was running fas
12. Krystal This isn't possible for a bunny ((traces pencil along
the inverted V shape on the graph))
13. Jaime haha
14. Mateo No this is a turtle
15. Krystal Yeah, this is a bunny ((again makes the inverted V))
like faster and then stopped
16. Mateo No that's a hare. Hare is bigger skinny
17. Krystal So it's better than a bunny
18. Mateo Yeah
After discussing the unfamiliar terms tortoise and hare, the students
were able to answer questions 1-3 by reading specific values on the
graph. However, the units in the students’ written answers were
incorrect (e.g., they wrote “At 2 seconds Tom ran 1 second faster than
Harold” in response to question 1), and the group struggled to make
sense of the units throughout the remainder of the problem. They
skipped questions 5, 9, and 10, and their written answers to questions
4, 6, 7, and 8 were incorrect.
In terms of the mediation of problem context, the most striking
contrast between the group’s discussion of Hexagon Desks in Excerpts
1 and 2 and their discussion of The Tortoise and The Hare in Excerpt 3
was that the context and terminology used in Hexagon Desks was
readily accessible to the students while the context and terminology in
The Tortoise and the Hare was not. Moreover, the story in Hexagon
Desks was more “real life” than the story in The Tortoise and the Hare.
In Excerpt 3, the mediation of everyday language was most clearly
evidenced by the students’ lack of knowledge of the vocabulary used
in the problem. Of course, knowing the terms tortoise and hare is not
actually required to solve this problem, but that does not mean that the
students were not distracted by these terms. In this sense there is a
parallel with assessment items considered by Martiniello (2008) where
she showed that unfamiliar terminology, even if it is unrelated to the
mathematics content, can distract students during problem solving. In a
strange twist, successfully solving The Tortoise and the Hare required
some extra knowledge—the knowledge that the context was meant to
be ignored.
Discussion
Distinctions between Two Ways Problem Contexts Mediated
Discussions
This analysis highlights two distinct ways that incorporating real life
contexts in school mathematics problems might mediate students’
mathematical problem solving. One way that context can mediate
students’ reasoning is through invoking particular semiotic resources
and ways of reasoning. This form of mediation was evident in the
group’s reasoning on Hexagon Desks, where they discussed the
perimeter of chains of hexagons by asking whether “somebody” could
sit at particular locations in the diagrams. The second type of context-
related mediation addressed in this paper was that using unfamiliar
contexts and terminology in the statement of mathematics problems
might interfere with students’ mathematical reasoning. This type of
problem context mediation was evident in the group’s discussion of the
Tortoise and the Hare, where some students in the group were
unfamiliar with both the fable of the tortoise and the hare, as well as
the meaning of the words tortoise and hare. While the group also
struggled with the mathematical concepts in this problem, there is
evidence that the peculiar story occupied some of their attention.
Together, Hexagon Desks and The Tortoise and the Hare illustrate
how the mediation of problem contexts in students’ joint problem
solving can operate on different levels. The interference of the problem
context in the Tortoise and the Hare was readily apparent to both the
students and the researcher. Because the story and the vocabulary in
the Tortoise and the Hare were unfamiliar to the students, the students
exerted some effort to make sense of the story and the characters, even
though knowing the story did not necessarily help solve the graph
analysis task. The students’ efforts to understand the story suggest that
they were unfamiliar with the genre of school mathematics word
problems, and the fact that the context often can—and at times
must—be ignored while solving the math problem (Gerofsky, 1996).
This form of mediation illustrates one way that cultural and linguistic
bias enters into school mathematics tasks. As previous research has
noted, when the task is an assessment, one result is that some students
may suffer linguistic discrimination on assessments (Abedi & Lord,
2001; Martiniello, 2008). Conversely, Abedi and Martiniello’s research

has also shown that with some minor linguistic adjustments, tasks can
be made more comprehensible for language minority students.
The students’ reasoning on Hexagon Desks shows a different, and
more subtle way in which problem context can mediate students’
problem solving. In this case, the students used the context to interpret
both the numerical pattern in the table and the images of chains of
hexagons. This shows an affordance of the context. However, the
students’ discussion also revealed that the language and metaphors
used to reason about students sitting around desks may have
introduced some ambiguity in the students’ mathematical problem
solving (see, e.g., the problems with the term “nobody” addressed in
the Findings). The students’ focus on whether “somebody” or
“nobody” could sit at different spaces around the chain of desks was
not inevitable. One might imagine a different situation where students
were asked a similar question framed by a story about coloring the
outside edges of a chain of one, two, three, and more hexagons. In
such a case the mathematical pattern would be similar, but the students
would likely draw on a different semiotic resources for problem
solving.
Research Implications
This paper illustrates how Wertsch’s (1991, 1998) framework of
mediated action can be used to rethink the influence of story problem
contexts on students’ mathematical reasoning. While prior studies have
used genre analysis, situated learning, and cognitive frameworks to
examine facets of mathematics story problems, the mediated action
framework helps illuminate how very subtle changes in mathematical
story problems may effect significant changes in students’ reasoning.
By framing the story of Hexagon Desks in terms of students sitting
around a row of desks, the students were “primed” to imagine bodies
arranged in physical space, and the traces of this way of thinking were
evident in the students’ talk. This is closely tied to Wertsch’s (and
Vygotsky’s) fundamental contention that human activity must be
analyzed as a system, and the agent taking action to achieve a goal
cannot be considered without also considering the meditational means

used to achieve those goals.
For mathematics education researchers, this analysis is a reminder
that we must be careful to account for the meditational means when we
analyze students’ mathematical reasoning. One possible follow up to
this analysis would be to examine how changing the story in word
problems corresponds to changes in the resources students draw upon
for their mathematical reasoning. Researchers in the field of
educational assessment pilot test several versions of mathematics test
items with an eye toward avoiding cultural and linguistic
discrimination. This consideration is critical for the development of
fair tests (American Educational Research Association, American
Psychological Association, & National Council on Measurement in
Education, 1999). However, in the field of mathematics education,
mathematics problem contexts are often treated as if they were
transparent. Analyses like the one presented here, reveal that the
context is highly salient for students, even if experts (such as
educational researchers) know that problem solvers are supposed to
ignore the story and focus on the mathematical relationships. Wertsch’s
notion of mediated action provides a unique way to understand why
some “equivalent” problems are more difficult than others.
One caveat is that this analysis should not lead to the conclusion that
experts always ignore the problem context and novices are confused
by contextualized problems because they do attempt to reason based
on the context. The actual differences between experts and novices
may be subtler than this dichotomy. For example, ethnographic studies
have shown that physicists in the university setting often draw upon
multiple metaphors and imagine themselves in problem spaces as they
skillfully solve abstract problems (Ochs, Jacoby, & Gonzales, 1994).
Practical Implications
This case study analysis does not include enough data to support
definitive recommendations for teaching. However, this case does
provide grist for examining how mathematics problems are used in the
service of teaching and learning mathematics. Traditionally in the
school curriculum, problems have been written to require the use of
particular solution methods, and the problem context was secondary to

the targeted mathematical technique (Gerofsky, 1996; Schoenfeld,
1992). With mathematics education reform, curriculum designers
sought to use more “real life” problems in mathematics texts (Boaler,
1993; National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 1989, 2000). This
case study, together with Wertsch’s (1991, 1998) notion of mediated
action, indicates one reason why educators should be cautious about
the use of problems in context. While “real life” applications may be
motivating for students, they also invite students to use alternative
semiotic systems for reasoning through problems, which may result in
the students providing unexpected answers. One amusing instance of
this occurred when piloting items for this study. When one group of
students was asked how many hexagon desks would be required to seat
44 students, the students responded 10. When the students were asked
to explain their reasoning, they said that, although there would be 42
spaces at a row of ten desks, the two extra students could squeeze in
somewhere on the side. In this case the students provided an answer
that was incorrect from a mathematical perspective, but which would
be practical in the real-life situation. Teachers may need to be aware of
potential conflicts like this.
Conclusion
The brief analysis here shows how adding “real life” context to a
mathematics problem can constrain students’ mathematical problem
solving while also providing some affordances. There is little doubt the
fanciful context and new vocabulary in The Tortoise and the Hare
interrupted the students’ focus on the mathematical problem. The
mediation of language and the problem context on Hexagon Desks is
subtler. While the problem context appeared to be familiar (or did not
warrant comment), the students’ use of terms like “somebody” and
“nobody” indicated that imagining the context mediated the group’s
mathematical reasoning. In the students’ discussions of Hexagon
Desks, Wertsch’s notion of mediation can help explain the group’s
responses to this task. While we cannot know for sure, it is interesting
to consider whether these students would have been more successful
reasoning through a problem about a chain of hexagons rather than a
chain of desks.
This study is limited by the fact that the two problems differ in terms
of their mathematical difficulty. In addition to using unfamiliar terms,
the Tortoise and Hare required students to interpret a velocity graph.
Nonetheless, the distinction between two forms of mediation—the
subtle influence of everyday language and the more overt issue of
unfamiliar language—can help researchers, curriculum designers, and
teachers as we consider what tasks to use for instruction and
assessment.
References
Abedi, J., & Lord, C. (2001). The language factor in mathematics tests.
Applied Measurement in Education, 14(3), 219-234.
American Educational Research Association, American Psychological
Association, & National Council on Measurement in Education
(1999). The standards for educational and psychological testing.
Washington, DC: American Educational Research Association.
Baranes, R., Perry, M., & Stigler, J. W. (1989). Activation of real-
world knowlegde in the solution of word problems. Cognition and
Instruction, 6(4), 287-318.
Boaler, J. (1993). The role of contexts in mathematics classrooms: Do
they make mathematics more "real"? For the Learning of
Mathematics, 13 (2), 12-17.
Brenner, M. E. (1998). Adding cognition to the formula for culturally
relevant instruction in mathematics. Anthropology & Education
Quarterly, 29(2), 214-244.
Carraher, T. N., Carraher, D. W., & Schliemann, A. D. (1985).
Mathematics in the streets and in schools. British Journal of
Developmental Psychology, 3 , 21-29.
Civil, M. (2002). Culture and mathematics: A community approach.
Journal ofIntercultural Studies, 23 (2), 133-148.
Civil, M., & Andrade, R. (2002). Transitions between home and school
mathematics: Rays of hope amid passing clouds. In G. Abreu, A.
Bishop & N. Presmeg (Eds.), Transitions between contexts of
mathematical practices. Great Britain: Kulwer Academic
Publishers.
Fendel, D., Resek, D., & Alper, L. (1996). Interactive Mathematics

Program: Year 1 . Emeryville, CA: Key Curriculum Press.
Forman, E. (1996). Learning mathematics as participation in classroom
practice: Implications of sociocultural theory. In Steffe, Nesher,
Cobbl, Goldin & Gree (Eds.), Theories ofmathematics learning
(pp. 115-130).
Gerofsky, S. (1996). A linguistic and narrative view of word problems
in mathematics education. For the Learning ofMathematics,
16(2), 36-45.
Greer, B. (1997). Modeling reality in mathematics classrooms: The
case of word problems. Learning and Instruction, 7(4), 293-307.
Hegedus, S. J., & Moreno, L. (2011). The emergence of mathematical
structures. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 77, 369-388.
Koedinger, K. R., & Nathan, M. J. (2004). The real story behind story
problems: Effects of representations on quantitative reasoning.
The Journal ofthe Learning Sciences, 13 (2), 129-164.
Luria, A. R. (1979). Cultural differences in thinking. The making of
mind: A personal account ofSoviet psychology (pp. 58-80).
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Martiniello, M. (2008). Language and the performance of English-
Language Learners in math word problems. Harvard Educational
Review, 78(2), 333-368.
Moschkovich, J. N. (2002). An introduction to examining everyday
and academic mathematical practices. In J. N. Moschkovich & M.
E. Brenner (Eds.), Everyday and academic mathematics in the
classroom . Reston, VA: National Council ofTeachers of
Mathematics.
Moschkovich, J. N. (2004). Appropriating mathematical practices: A
case study of learning to use and explore functions through
interactions with a tutor. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 55,
49-80.
Moschkovich, J. N., & Brenner, M. E. (Eds.). (2002). Everyday and
academic mathematics in the classroom . Reston, VA: National
Council ofTeachers of Mathematics.
National Council ofTeachers of Mathematics (1989). Curriculum and
evaluation standards for school mathematics. Reston, VA: author.
National Council ofTeachers of Mathematics (2000). Principles and

Standards ofSchool Mathematics. Reston, VA: author.
Ochs, E., Jacoby, S., & Gonzales, P. (1994). Interpretive journeys:
How physicists talk and travel through graphic space.
Configurations, 2(1), 151-171.
Radford, L. (2001). Signs and meanings in students' emergent
algebraic thinking: A semiotic analysis. Educational Studies in
Mathematics, 42(3), 237-268.
Radford, L., Bardini, C., & Sabena, C. (2007). Perceiving the general:
The multisemiotic dimension of students’ algebraic activity.
Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 38(5), 507-530.
Rogoff, B. (1990). Apprenticeship in thinking: Cognitive development
in cultural context. New York: Oxford University Press.
Saxe, G. B. (1995). From the field to the classroom: Studies in
mathematical understanding. In L. P. Steffe & J. Gale (Eds.),
Constructivism in Education (pp. 287-311). Hillsdale, N.J.:
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Schoenfeld, A. H. (1992). Learning to think mathematically: Problem
solving, metacognition and sense making in mathematics. In D.
Grouws (Ed.), Handbook ofResearch in mathematics teaching
and learning (pp. 334-370). New York: Macmillan.
Schwartz, J. L. (1988). Intensive quantity and referent transforming
arithmetic operations. In J. Hiebert & M. Behr (Eds.), Number
concepts and operations in the middle grades. Reston, VA:
National Council ofTeachers of Mathematics.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development ofhigher
psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
Press.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1986). Thought and language. Cambridge, MA: The
MIT Press.
Walkerdine, V. (1988). The mastery ofreason: Cognitive development
and the production ofrationality. New York: Routledge.
Walkington, C. A., & Maull, K. (2011, July). Exploring the assistance
dilemma: The case ofcontext Personalization . Paper presented at
the Annual meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, Boston,
MA.
Wertsch, J. V. (1991). Voices of the mind: A sociocultural approach to

mediated action . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Wertsch, J. V. (1998). Mind as action. New York: Oxford University
Press.
Appendix
Hexagon Desks
Ms. West wants to know how many students can sit around a row of
hexagon shaped desks.
If one desk is by If two desks are pushed If three desks are pushed
itself then six together, then 10 together in a row as shown
students can sit students can sit at the below, then 14 students
around it. table. can sit together.
1. Fill in the following table for the number of students who can sit
together for the number of desks pushed together in a row:
Number of Hexagon Desks Number of Students
2. Imagine that 100 of the hexagon desks were pushed together in a

row. How many students could sit around that row of desks? Show
the work you used to find that solution.
3. If n hexagon shaped desks, were pushed together, then how many
students could sit at the row of desks? Give your answer as a formula
in terms of n.
4. Use the table you made in problem 1 to draw a graph showing the
number of children who could sit at a row of desks
5. If you connect the dots between points in the graph to make a line,
what is the slope of that line? How do you know?
6. What is the meaning of the slope of the line in terms ofthe problem
about children sitting at desks? Explain your answer in terms of the
problem and using words and ideas that you know from math class.
7. What if n octagon-shaped desks were pushed together? How would
this problem be different? How would it be the same? Explain your
answer in as much detail as possible (you may use equations, tables,
graphs, words, etc.).
The Tortoise and the Hare

One day Tom the Tortoise and Harold the Hare ran a race. Tom got a
running start, but they both ran across the starting line at the same
moment when the timer said 0 seconds. They ran along a straight road
for 10 seconds and the graph below shows Tom and Harold’s velocity
(speed) during the 10-second race:
A drawing ofTom and This graph shows the velocity (speed in meters per second)
Harold’s race ofTom the tortoise and Harold the hare during the race.
1. Who was running faster at t = 2 seconds? How do you know?

2. Who was running faster at t = 4 seconds? How do you know?
3. During what time periods was Tom running faster? How do you
know?
4. At what time (or times) were Tom and Harold in the same location
during the race? How do you know?
5. At what time (or times) were Tom and Harold running at the same
speed during the race? How do you know?
6. How far did Tom run?
7. How far did Harold run?
8. Who was ahead after 5 seconds?
9. Did Tom or Harold run backwards at some point during the race?
How do you know?
10. Who won the race? How do you know?
William Zahner is Associated professor at the Department of

Curriculum and Teaching (in the program "Mathematics
Education") at Boston University, USA.
Contact address: Direct correspondence concerning this article
should be addressed to the author at: Boston University SED, 2
Silber Way, Boston MA 02215. E-mail address: wzahner@bu.edu.
Mathematics Teacher Continuing Education: Fostering the

Constitution of a Learning Network
Nielce Meneguelo Lobo de Costa and Maria Elisabette Brisola Brito Prado 1
1 ) Universidade Bandeirante de São Paulo.
To cite this article: Lobo da Costa, N.M., & Prado, M.E.B.B. (201 2).
Mathematics Teacher Continuing Education: Fostering the Constitution of a
Learning Network. Journal of Research in Mathematics Education, 1 (2),
1 36-1 58. doi: 1 0.4471 /redimat.201 2.0 8
To link this article: http://dx.doi.org/1 0.4471 /redimat.201 2.08
June 2012 pp. 136-158
Mathematics Teacher
Continuing Education:
Fostering the Constitution
of a Learning Network
Nielce M. Lobo da Costa Maria E. Brisola Brito Prado
Universidade Bandeirante Universidade Bandeirante
de São Paulo de São Paulo
Abstract
This qualitative study analyzes log entries from a group of elementary school
teachers aiming to understand how a collaborative learning network is set up
during the continued development actions. The interpretive analysis revealed
the following categories: Shared reflection, Learning, Trust, Reflection on
practice, Experience Exchanging, Shared Goals and Commitment to the other,
which show the features of collaborative work. Categories were analyzed using
CHIC software which allowed for the relational analysis among them showing
that development under this perspective can favor the practitioner’s
professional development by offering him opportunities to experience his role
as a learner and a teacher simultaneously.
Keywords: professional development, collaborative work, learning networks.
2012 Hipatia Press

ISSN 2014-3621
DOI: 10.4471/redimat.2012.09
136 Lobo da Costa & Prado - Constitution ofa learning network
T he paradigm for the 21st-century society brings the need to

rethink education and the ways to teach and learn mathematics
having as a focus the future practitioner who will work in synch
with a globalized world, which has a number of different technological
resources that require mastering knowledge, creativity, ethics and
solidarity.
In this scenario, the teacher’s role becomes evident because, being a
mediator in the student’s learning process he will have to review his
practices, his mathematical knowledge and teaching strategies. This
implies developing new knowledge and, hence, continued education for
the mathematics teacher.
In Brazil, legislation makes it mandatory for children between 6 and
141 years of age to attend school, and this period is known as
elementary school. The right to attend school is made available for the
Brazilian population by means of federal, state and municipal schools. It
is by attending them that Brazilian children have access to culture,
mainly when they come from more impoverished segments of the
society, since private schools provide for the families who are
financially capable of paying for the costs. In short, there are two types
of school: the public, free one, which offers elementary education for
the population in general, in an inclusive, democratic perspective, and
the private one, which provides for specific social and religious groups.
It is worth noting that the majority of the Brazilian children and young
adults attend public schools.
Taking into account Brazil’s continental dimensions and the limited
resources for education, two challenges are at stake: access to education
and the quality of teaching-learning processes. The issue of access today
can be considered as having been solved, but the greater challenge to
promote quality, democratic teaching for public schools to provide for
all kinds of students remains.
When one thinks about the quality of public education, a number of
issues arise: the premises, management and human resources. With
regard to the latter, the first resource to come to mind is the teacher as
the key mediator between students and knowledge. Among elementary
school teachers, when we focus our attention on the mathematics
teacher, some issues emerge, such as: (1) how can a mathematics
teacher face the challenge to help build quality teaching in public

schools? (2) With technological advances happening daily, how can the
teacher keep up with them and use such innovations in the classroom?
(3) How can the teacher prepare himself to deal with the challenges
presented by this public school that provides for all kinds of students
and teach mathematics there?
Such questions immediately evoke this teacher’s continued education
that should play a key role in the teaching career. How has continued
education been performing? Developing processes in the continued
education modality have been provided by teachers’ individual
initiatives, by the government’s initiative, and by development projects
linked to college researches in their mathematics education programs.
When the teacher decides to pursue development individually, the
courses sought are those to improve specific and/or teaching knowledge
and specialization courses, while government’s proposals include
training, qualifying and workshops aiming at implementing public
policies. Regarding college projects, the choices for development
actions are, in their majority, oriented to understand the teacher’s
learning process, as well as the different development strategies.
One of the development strategies recently emphasized by many
authors is the one which enables the teacher’s professional development
by taking into account his knowledge and a reflective and investigative
attitude towards practice (Alarcão, 2001).
In Brazil, there are studies about continued education for mathematics
teachers showing that group work, both at colleges and development
centers and also at the school itself, develops collaborative attitudes
among participants (Fiorentini, 2006; Lobo da Costa et al, 2011).
Besides, learning in and with the group, can become a regular practice
among teachers to share what they think and do regarding the teaching
and learning of mathematics in the classroom, as well as to discuss
issues related to social, political, cultural and economic aspects. Such
aspects, albeit not specific to mathematics, are embedded in the
educational action and can interfere both with the teacher’s practice and
students’ learning.
This qualitative study analyzes log entries from a group of elementary
school teachers aiming to understand how a collaborative learning
network is set up during actions for continued development.
Professional Development and Collaborative Work

Studies have shown indicators that play a significant role in continued
education processes and can lead to changes in teaching practices
aiming at improving the quality of mathematics teaching. Such
indicators emphasize the importance to create situations that allow for
the teacher to have opportunities to reflect upon his own learning and
his pedagogical practice so as to favor the perception by the individual
of his own conceptions and pedagogical demeanor and the
methodological strategies he uses in the classroom. (Pietropaolo et al,
2009).
Hence, many authors like Imbernón (2010), Prado and Valente
(2002), Campos et al (2009) among others, underscore that continued
development geared to professional development should include the
classroom daily issues, and integrate contextualized actions so that the
teacher can revisit his practice, reflect upon it and rebuild it.
… the teacher’s practical experience in the classroom should also
be presented both as a study and reflective situation to the
developing teacher. This situation allows for the teacher to put
into practice the theoretical principles and, by doing so, notice the
need to understand their relativity, considering the various
elements at play in the teaching-learning process. (Prado, 2003,
p. 41)
The continued education approach that prioritizes contextualized
learning, and an investigative-reflective attitude from the teacher,
requires a systematic follow up from the developer as the pedagogical
mediator in the teacher’s acting context. In this perspective, Lobo da
Costa et al (2010), Prado (2006) underscore the importance of the
developer's role to promote situations that will favor interactions
among teachers so that a collaborative network can be built in which
everyone learns and teaches with and to one another.
Collaborative work, as proposed by Fullan and Hargreaves (2000) is
characterized by a number of features, of which we highlight: the
attitudes and behaviors in the rapport among the teachers, which reveal
trust, commitment, sharing of ideas, experience and doubts, as well as
the recognition both of the individual and of the group to which they
belong.
However, it is important to emphasize that collaborative work is not
immediately established among participants. According to Imbernón
(2010):
… collaborative work among teachers is not easy, as it is based
on understanding education as a means to create spaces where
both individual and group abilities can be developed, with dialog,
from the analysis and discussion among all participants when
exploring new concepts. (p.65)
Hence, a developing approach needs to intentionally develop strategies
that favor collaboration as a practice built by group members. This is
confirmed by what many researchers, such as Fiorentini et al (2002),
have been finding as signs that collaborative work is essential for the
professional development of teachers.
Professional development for us means, according to Ponte (1997),
as being formed by all the actions performed by the teacher that lead to
restructuring his pedagogical practice, based on reflection, action and
new reflection. It is “a process of growing competencies in terms of
teaching and non-teaching practices, in self-controlling his activities as
an educator and as part of the school organization” (p. 44).
To enhance professional development, according to the author, it is
important to consider both the collective and individual aspects, since
such development is improved by collaborative contexts (institutional
and associational, both formal and informal ones) where the teacher
has the opportunity to interact with his peers.
One research in particular conducted by Lobo da Costa (2004)
identified that collaborative work involved characteristics that were
present in the development process, and were defined as the following
categories: (C1) Shared reflection; (C2) Learning/ learning with each
other; (C3) Teacher’s actions; (C4) Development actions; (C5)
Research about practice; (C6) Experience exchange; (C7)
Representativeness of all participants’ thoughts; (C8) Partnership; (C9)
Shared goals; (C10) Commitment to the group; (C11) Trust, (C12)
Voluntary participation; (C13) Dialog/interaction; (C14) Autonomy
development and (C15) Reflection on action.

It is worth noting that researchers such as Boavida and Ponte (2002)
have also pointed out that collaborative work is an interesting option in
continued education processes. For these authors, collaboration
happens “in cases when a number of interveners work together, not in
a hierarchical relation, but in an equal basis so as to have mutual help
and common goals from which everyone can benefit” (p. 45).
Collaborative work has the advantage of providing multiple views
about the educational situation which in turn allows for the production
of consistent, interpretative frames about the issue which was
researched and studied.
When working in collaborative-nature groups, the relationship
between developer-developee is upturned in such a way that the
established belief that in a continued education process there is one
developer, or team of developers, who work with a group of teachers
promoting their development, is now replaced by the idea of forming a
team of educators who work together with college researchers and/or
institutions in charge of the projects, and teachers, in a relationship of
mutual learning and developing (Lobo da Costa, 2006).
Another relevant issue refers to the conclusions drawn by the GT 7
meeting in the III SIPEM as presented in the Report (2007), which
pointed that:
Partnership, the pursuit to build collective knowledge, meets our
present needs. School teachers, very frequently, have been acting
like their students when receiving knowledge that is imposed
and/or meaningless: they reject it. Developing proposals that are
based on the transmission of knowledge – well-meant, but
foreign to the local reality of each group of teachers – have
proven to be irrelevant for decades. Together, school and
university teachers reflect upon their own professional
knowledge and give new meaning to their own professional
development3 .
The GT7 emphasizes the importance of continued education projects
whose focus is not only on increasing the teacher’s mathematical
knowledge, but which promote discussions of contents that relate to
classroom daily activities. They point out that establishing partnerships

among mathematics educators at the universities and the schools is
essential for the development of common knowledge, required by both
the academic world and the school. In this regard, the group of
Brazilian researchers has established indicators that are closer to those
found in a worldwide context (Jaworski, 2001).
The research to which this article refers to is embedded in the
Programa Observatório da Educação (Education Observatory
Program, in English) whose focus is to involve academics with
teachers working at elementary levels, having as a principle the
development of work partnerships, closely linked to classroom reality.
In other words, this partnership is made by the integration of two
different types of knowledge: theory and practice.
Research scenario
The research which supports this article is embedded in the project
“Educação Continuada de Professores de Matemática do Ensino
Fundamental e Médio: Constituição de um Núcleo de Estudos e
Investigações sobre Processos Formativos” (ECPMEFM) 4, linked to
the Education Observatory Program. This program is funded by the
Brazilian government whose goal is to improve the teaching and
learning processes in public schools in the country and is developed
together with universities. The project stimulates the academic
community to develop action and research oriented to the needs of
teacher development for teachers that work at elementary-level
education.
The ECPMEFM project is being developed in a private university in
São Paulo city by the mathematical education department, with a
group of professors, master and doctoral students, who work and
develop research together with teachers, engaged in mathematics
teaching in public schools. The research and development project has
as a goal to develop a continued education methodology for
mathematics teachers working at elementary levels of education, and
involves the creation of collaborative professional learning networks,
so as to provide sustainability, deemed to be the project’s underlying
concept.
The project is under development and extends for four years,

involving various groups of mathematics teachers at elementary
schools in the city of São Paulo, and development actions are
performed on-site at the university campus, using practical and
theoretical activities related to mathematical concepts and their
implications to the process of teaching and learning. The group reports
and discusses practices developed by the teachers in the context of
their classroom together with their students. The group uses a virtual
learning environment - (AVA) specially customized for the project - to
improve the interaction and dialog among participants for them to
share ideas and experiences about each one’s own learning experience
in the project and in their practice teaching mathematics.
One of the guidelines for mathematics teachers’ development in the
ECPMEFM project is the constitution of collaborative groups between
school and university teachers, among school teachers only, and
between teachers and students. We seek to investigate to what extent
such groups improve the professional development of the teachers
involved. This is about using qualitative research, of a co-generating
nature, as proposed by Greenwood and Levin (2000), that is, a
particular kind of action-research that is developed by the partnership
between researchers and teachers who create knowledge together. Both
types of knowledge, the practical and the academic, are key for the
research development. Continued development is designed through a
number of strategic actions linked to contextualizing learning and
building a collaborative network among peers, including the
possibilities of virtual interactions as one way to allow for recording in
writing the participants' reflective logs (Prado, 2003; Bairral, 2003;
Lobo da Costa et al, 2008).
This is the scenario in which the present study was developed. The
goal was to understand how a collaborative learning network is set up
during continued development actions. For that, we analyzed data
collected from the first group of participants in the project, which
included thirty elementary school teachers working at the public
school network in São Paulo.
The development actions performed with this group aimed to:
• Approach contents based on the official mathematics syllabus of
the state of São Paulo, starting at Sequences and followed by Plane
Geometry.
• Develop activities involving: narratives, identification of teachers’
expectations and demands, as well as life histories and reflection upon
their own learning.
• Discuss the purposes of mathematical education.
• Discuss issues related to practices performed at the schools with
the students and the theories studied, as well as reflections and studies
carried out in the classroom.
As for data collection, one of the strategies used at ECPMEFM project
was to request, after one school-term interaction with the group, that a
reflexive log be produced. The log was individually written and made
available in the virtual environment used as a support for development
actions.
The reflexive log was a key element for data collection for two main
reasons. First, because it enables the teacher to register his learning
path in such a way that he can reflect and become aware of what he
experienced with the group in this process of reconstitution. Second, to
take developers and researchers to know the actions, reactions,
feelings, impressions, interpretations, explanations, hypotheses and
concerns in the experiences lived by the group of teachers and also to
redirect future development actions.
The log entries analysis was interpretative and used as categories the
characteristics found in the research conducted by Lobo da Costa
(2004), previously mentioned. Besides this interpretative analysis of
the entries, a statistics treatment was applied to the categories using the
software CHIC, 2004 (Coercive and Hierarchical Implication
Classification) which allows us to have an overview of similarities
and variable classes mapped on the hierarchical levels of a tree.
From these indicators, we identified and analyzed the categories that
were present in the entries made available in the virtual environment,
which came from the participating teachers’ reflexive logs.
Results
The interpretative analysis of the logs stored in the AVA, showed the
following characteristics of collaborative work:
Code Category Description

C1 Shared reflection Reports expressing thoughts and
queries to the group.
C2 Learning/Learning Reports stating own learning
with each other (specific and content syllabus).
C3 Teaching actions Reports involving classroom
experiences.
C6 Experience Reports involving syllabus contents
exchange and practical activities.
C9 Shared goals Reports involving the search process
to achieve joint goals.
C10 Commitment to the Reports stating commitment to one
group another.
C11 Trust Reports indicating a feeling of
belonging and comfort.
C13 Dialog/Interaction Reports showing recognition of
group dialogs’ worth.
C14 Autonomy Reports indicating more confidence
development in decision-making.
C15 Reflection on action Reports showing the reconstitution of
pedagogical practices applied.
Hence, out of the fifteen categories listed by Lobo da Costa (2004), ten
were found in this study. As shown by the excerpts of the participants’
reflexive log entries, they exemplify the different categories of
collaborative work as described below:
C1 – Shared reflection Sharing with this group was a great help,
C2 – Learning because many of my doubts were clarified
C13 – Dialog/interaction and the themes discussed here were of great
C11 – Trust importance. For instance, studying Parsysz’s
levels was very interesting, because we
thought a little more about how children’s
minds work. The interaction was intense in
this study group. (Teacher_A’s log)
C1 – Shared reflection The meetings in which we did practical

C2 – Learning exercises were more profitable, we managed
C6 – Experience to exchange experiences and learned how to
exchange solve the exercises in various ways, because
C13 – Dialog/interaction different ways to solve them came up.
(Teacher_B’s log)
In these two logs we notice that mastering the mathematical content is

essential and is the first step to lead the teacher to rethink his
pedagogical practice, although we know that having the mathematical
knowledge does not ensure reflection upon action or changes in the
classroom.
C1 – Shared reflection I could notice that talking about geometry to

C2 – Learning my students is not that complex, it’s possible
C15 – Reflection on and real, the geometry presented in the
action modules is a beautiful geometry, easy to be
developed, and worked as an incentive to be
applied in the classroom. For instance,
about the Pythagorean theorem, when we
made the drawing on the poster paper and
explored various issues (as one leads to
another), building the tangram, using it as a
puzzle, gee, that was awesome! Soon after
that we tackled another topic about the
trapeze area (… ) and went deeper into the
Pythagorean theorem. (Teacher_C’s log)
In the above entry, it is clear that when the teacher realizes there are
new possibilities to approach mathematics which he finds meaningful,
he becomes elated and concludes that it can be adapted to his students;
from then on, a motion is set and it can have an impact in the
classroom.
C1 – Shared reflection I learned a lot, it’s hard to tell what was

C2 – Learning more meaningful, because everything and
C11 – Trust every subject were meaningful. I learned
about the different types of trends in
mathematical teaching and fitted in some of
them, I learned how we can use geometry in
the classroom by just using concrete
materials in a simple, constructive way, I
learned a lot about the Pythagorean theorem
and its contextualization. The most
meaningful content was the development of
geometry exercises, the part about triangles
similarity, in which I had the opportunity to
clear doubts and learn… (Teacher_D’s log)
The word that appears most frequently in the entry above is “learned”.
We found that for this to happen it is essential the group of teachers
feel at ease and confident to take an open attitude as a “learner”, which
allows him to establish relations between what is being discussed and
studied in the group and his daily actions in the classroom. It can be
noticed in this entry that the learning of mathematical contents did not
happen as an isolated event, but rather related to the context and in a
reflexive way.
C1 – Shared reflection The demonstrations for the Pythagoras
C2 – Learning theorem and others performed in the
C3 – Teaching actions triangles were presented exactly when I was
C6 – Experience teaching similarity to my 9th grade students.
exchange I had to make a few changes, doing practical
C11 – Trust applications instead ofusing technical terms.
C15 – Reflection on I made good use of some of my colleagues’
action ideas that were used in the demonstrations
and they worked very well. (Teacher_E’s log)
What can be noticed in this entry is the openness to learn with each
other and that the learning in the group has catalyzed changes in
classroom practice. We noticed that, as there was a coincidence
between what was being discussed in the meetings and the class
syllabus, it was possible to develop teaching actions using materials
and methodologies previously discussed and analyzed in the group’s
work.
C1 – Shared reflection What attracts me most in this and other
C9 – Shared goals courses is to set up groups who have the
C10 – Commitment to same focus ofinterest: improving the ways to
the group approach contents in the classroom. And, for
that, I realized that undergraduate education
for teachers has shortcomings, because
many colleagues show, and admit having, a
lot ofdifficulty in understanding many ofthe
contents, which worries me, because I don’t
know how to go round this situation.
(Teacher_F’s log)
The teacher recognizes having the same focus of interest as one of the
most important characteristics of collaborative work in a group. His
view of his peers, identifying their conceptual shortcomings deriving
from deficiencies in their undergraduate education, gives us the feeling
that in many cases the teacher is the casualty of an educational system
which will continue to lead to a vicious circle that hinders
improvements in education, unless changes are made to it.
C1 – Shared reflection In the second module, which was a positive
C2 – Learning continuity of the first, we had more
C9 – Shared goals approaches to geometry, Broadening our
C10 – Commitment to understanding. There was one extremely
the group interesting lecture conducted by teacher
C15 – Reflection on Serrazina that made me think and startle
action when she said, ‘If I teach and my students
don’t learn, it’s because I'm not teaching’.
(Teacher_G’s log)
The effect produced by the phrase “if I teach and my students don’t
learn, it’s because I'm not teaching” shows the teacher’s moment of
awareness to recognize that, although teaching and learning are two
distinct processes, they are interrelated in educational actions. Teacher
and student constitute one system and while interacting, one teaches
and learns how to teach while the other learns and teaches how he
learns, being both accountable for each other’s development.
C1 – Shared reflection . . . I refreshed my knowledge, I learned
mudar certain subjects that I had not studied before,
C2 – Learning either in high school or at college. Certainly,
C11 – Trust what I learned has helped me a lot, both to
my personal and professional growth. (… )
I'm thankful for the opportunity to be part of
this group, with wonderful teachers and
colleagues. I learned a lot with all of you.
(Teacher_H’s log)
The feeling of accomplishment expressed by the teacher as soon as he

recognizes his learning potential, shows that the educator, regardless of
his specialty, must feel prepared in terms of syllabus contents to
perform his trade autonomously. Hence, a deep revision of role of the
educational institution is required.
C1 – Shared reflection Geometry undoubtedly contributed a lot for
C2 – Learning classroom teaching. (. . . ) It was easy to
C3 – Teaching actions clarify students’ doubts, because we had
C14 – Autonomy discussed exactly the same content with the
development group. I worked on problems using everyday
C15 – Reflection on situations, like the ladder and the kite we
action had used in our meetings. I found the group
assignments interesting. Usually, while in the
classroom, I apply exercises to be solved
individually, but from then on I started to use
group work study and the students like it
very much. (Teacher_I’s log)
This entry confirms what we have previously discussed and brings

some complementary information related to group work practices; he
underscores that what has been experienced in the project - such as
situations where they can learn with each other by interacting,
clarifying ideas and debating viewpoints -, have enriched his learning.
C1 – Shared reflection Ways to solve exercises. I wish we had
mudar moreIn Module 2: I was dazzled by the many
C2 – Learning diverse meetings with geometry, because I
C11 – Trust still have many doubts, I have a lot to learn.
As Einstein said, ‘I know that I know
nothing’. (Teacher_J’s log)
The desire and openness, that is, the internal motivation to learn
presented by the teacher shows that it was possible to create a
relationship of trust among group members, allowing for each of them
to genuinely recognize themselves in terms of what they know and
what they need to know.
C1 – Shared reflection At first I thought it would be yet another
mudar course which, at our level oflearning, would
C2 – Learning be useless, but I noticed in the subsequent
C3 – Teaching actions meetings that it wasn’t just a course, but a lot
C6 – Experience more: it was about exchanging ideas and
exchange experiences lived by other teachers in their
C13 – Dialog/Interaction daily teaching practices in the classroom.
C15 – Reflection on (. . . ) I learned that calculating a simple area
action in a figure like a square, is something that
we can teach at least in three different ways,
thus creating a more interactive environment
between the content and the students.
(Teacher_K’s log)
The entry hints that throughout time, a more flexible relationship was
established, with a less hierarchy than the one established in continued
education courses. In other words, more than college professors going
to conduct a course for mathematics public school teachers, we

became a group of mathematics educators, discussing and exchanging
experiences about learning and teaching mathematics.
C1 – Shared reflection The group helped me solve difficulties in. At
C2 – Learning first, when requested that we geometry
C11 – Trust developed activities about certain subjects, I
felt a little insecure sometimes; but as the
course developed, I noticed that my
difficulties were the same as some of my
colleagues'. I also noticed that the way we
had our group meetings helped us solve
doubts that everyone had. (Teacher_L’s log)
C1 – Shared reflection I learned a little with each one of the

C2 – Learning participants and with the professors’
C11 – Trust interventions bringing in viewpoints I had
C6 – Experience not yet conceived, (… ), it’s an area which I
exchange found difficult to work with: the theoretical
field of demonstrations and proofs of some
axioms. I profited a lot from all the
explanations given by the colleagues (… ). It
was enough for me to generalize this
knowledge. (… ) with the group’s help, I
improved. (Teacher_M’s log)
C1 – Shared reflection I could tell I’m different from when I started,

mudar I have a ‘little’ more knowledge, but I believe
C2 – Learning it serves to improve my teaching practice.
(Teacher_N’s log)
C1 – Shared reflection I learned to reflect more about questions to

mudar be worked on with the students, thus
C2 – Learning developing a better perception in the
C15 – Reflection on thinking, emphasizing the researches and
action commentaries in group. Valuing everyone’s
C13 – Dialog/Interaction opinion for a better understanding of
mathematical applications. (Teacher_O’s
log)
C1 – Shared reflection What is interesting is that we can bring

C15 – Reflection on situations that happen in the classroom to be
action discussed by the group, the way the students
C11 – Trust behave, how they learn and their behavior in
C6 – Experience relation to the various subjects ofthe content
exchange applied. (Teacher_P’s log)
C3 – Teacher actions
These last entries show that teachers recognize the existence of a new
way to learn based on the exchange of experiences in a development
context that provides collaborative work, thus establishing and
strengthening an atmosphere of trust to teach and learn with each
other.
A wider lookout allows us to notice the constant presence of the
characteristic Shared reflection (C1) in the entries. This is due to the
fact that all participants had access to the logs, which were available in
the virtual environment at any time. This opportunity for the
participating teacher to write and re-write their logs, as well as to read
and re-read his and his fellow teachers’ logs as many times as he
wished and make comments, is what encourages the sharing of ideas,
reflections, experiences and queries among group members.
The second characteristic that was most frequent in the logs was
Learning (C2), showing that openness to learn in collaborative work is
imperative. Some of the entries clearly show that the teacher
recognizes the importance of the fellow teacher’s role in his own

learning process.
The characteristic Trust (C11) is related with learning, as teachers
experiencing a collaborative task must feel confident to expose their
shortcomings to peers without being afraid of judgments but rather
with the courage and expectations of his personal and professional
development.
Besides the above interpretative analysis of the logs, we also treated
the resulting categories using CHIC, which allowed us to carry out a
relational analysis among them. The next figure shows the similarity
tree produced:
Figure 1 . Category Similarity Tree
In figure 1, the similarity tree, two classes are found: Class-1, formed
by categories (C1) Shared reflection, (C2) Learning/learning with each
other, (C11) Trust, (C9) Shared goals and (C10) Commitment to the
group, and Class-2, composed by categories (C3) Teaching actions,
(C15) Reflection on practice, (C14) Autonomy development, (C6)
Experience exchange and (C13) Dialog/interaction.
Class-1 was named Interaction and contains a sub-class, constituted

by categories (C1, (C2, C11) and by a cluster formed by categories
(C9, C10), as shown in the figure below:
Figure 2. Class 1 - Interaction
It can be observed that the cluster (C9, C10) shows a significant level
of similarity indicating a high probability that some interaction
occurred among the teachers in the group in terms of sharing goals and
creating attitudes of commitment. This possibility of interaction among
peers is paramount and should be one of the goals for developers, since
this experience can contribute for the establishment of commitment
with one another in the learning context provided by the Education
Observatory Program.
The sub-class formed by the set of categories (C1 (C2, C11), shows a
discreet level of similarity, but still hints that the teachers recognize the
fact that an atmosphere of trust must be created to enable learning with
each other so that they can expose their conceptual frailties. Such trust
allows the teacher to feel accepted by the group, and he can change his
behavior towards learning with his colleagues’ experiences and sharing
his reflections about practical and theoretical questions studied in
group, supported by the developers’ pedagogical mediation.
Class-2 was named Teacher's work and is composed by the
chaining of categories {((C3, C15), C14), (C6, C13)}, as shown in the
figure below:
Figure 3 . Class 2 - Teaching Activity
This chain of categories clearly demonstrates the existence of a higher

degree of similarity between the categories (C3, C15), showing that
the experiences lived by the teachers participating in the Education
Observatory Project, allowed for the teacher’s classroom practice to be
reported, reflected upon and understood. Thus the importance for
development courses to incorporate the teacher’s actions, those
experienced in his school context. However, such actions should be
reflected upon and understood.
This probably happened through experience exchanging between the
teacher and his peers and through the dialogs established among group
members, as well as between the teachers and the studied theoreticians,
the ones who clarify their understanding, providing better conditions
for the development of intellectual autonomy.
Such autonomy can propel the mathematics teacher of elementary
schools to pursue professional self-development, taking into account
that this learning process should be continuous and dynamic for him to
interact with the students, the future professionals in a new society.
We can notice that these characteristics are interrelated: the teacher’s
professional development is linked to reflecting on his practice to
reconstruct it, and it is within this process that exchanging experiences
becomes encouraging, because it shows new possibilities which allow
them to dare to change their teaching actions concerning learning
strategies. Hence, the acknowledgement of the role played by dialog

and interactions established in collaborative work on continued
development for teachers. The characteristics which appeared more
discreetly in these logs were “Shared goals” and “commitment to each
other”, which indicate that such characteristics develop as group
members feel they have more autonomy to share their goals in search
of knowledge, as well as to develop commitment to their peers'
learning.
We insist that, for the developers, understanding this process is
essential to design development strategies that incorporate dynamic
actions, so as to establish a movement between analysis and deepening
of mathematical contents, and almost simultaneously, incorporate
various aspects from the teacher’s pedagogical practice. It is in this
movement between action and reflection, between mathematical
contents and their re-contextualization in the school practice, that the
knowledge of the teacher’s praxis will be developed towards a learning
spiral.
Conclusion
This study showed the connection between collaborative network as a
collective learning space in the context of continued education and the
potential it has to propel the teacher’s professional development. The
network is created through a process in which the development actions
are designed based on experiences that reinforce characteristics that
are typical of collaborative work.
The indication is that this network includes the use of the
contributions provided by virtual environments, as the latter allow for
breaking barriers of space and time among group members and also
enable dialogs/interactions which are established by means of writing
using various communication resources in the virtual environment.
This type of interaction, involving the sharing of experiences,
knowledge, reflections and queries, helps build a collaborative
learning-reflection space among the teachers. This form of learning, in
turn, makes every participant able to experience simultaneously being
a learner and a teacher to the others, and to move towards the
sustainability of learning throughout life.
References
Alarcão, I. (2001). Escola Reflexiva e nova racionalidade. Porto
Alegre: Artmed.
Almouloud, S. (1992) L’ Ordinateur, outil d’aide à l’apprentissage de
la démonstration et de traitement de donnés didactiques. These de
Docteur. U.F.R. de Mathematiques. Rennes, França: Université de
Rennes I.
Bairral, M.A. (2003). Dimensões de Interação na Formação a
Distância em Matemática. Erichim (RS): Revista Perspectiva, 27
(98), 33-42l.
Boavida, A. M. e Ponte, J. P. (2002). Investigação colaborativa:
Potencialidades e problemas. In GTI (ed.), Reflectir e investigar
sobre a prática profissional, 43-55. Lisboa: APM.
Campos, T.M.M.; Pietropaolo, R.C.; Prado, M.E.B.B; Campos, Silva,
A.C. (2009). Uma abordagem de educação a distância em um
processo de formação continuada de professores de Matemática.
VI CIBEM - Congreso Iberoamericano de Educación Matemática.
Puerto Montt, Chile.
Ferreira, A. C. (2003). Metacognição e desenvolvimento profissional
de professores de matemática: uma experiência de trabalho
colaborativo . Tese de Doutorado em Educação. Campinas:
FE/Unicamp, SP.
Fiorentini, D.; Nacarato, A.M.; Ferreira, A. C.; Lopes, C.A. E.; Freitas,
M. T. M.; Miskulin, R. G. S.(2001). Formação de professores que
ensinam Matemática: um balanço de 25 anos da pesquisa
brasileira. Educação em Revista, 36, 137-160.
Fullan, M. & Hargreaves, A. (2000). A escola como organização
aprendente: buscando uma educação de qualidade. 2ª ed. Porto
Alegre: Artes Médicas,135p.
Gras R. (2000). Les fondements de l’analyse statistique implicative,
Quaderni di Ricerca in Didattica del Gruppo di Ricerca
sull’Insegnamento delle Matematiche (G. R. I. M. ), 9, 189-209.
Greenwood, D. & Levin, M.(2000). Reconstructing the relationships
between universities and society through action research. In:
Norman D. and Yvonna L. (ed.) Handbook for Qualitative
Research , 85-106, 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage
Publications Inc.
Imbernón, F. (2010). Formação continuada de professores. Trad.

Juliana dos Santos Padilha. Porto Alegre: Artmed, 120 p.
Lobo da Costa, N.M. (2004). Formação de professores para o ensino
da matemática com a informática integrada à prática
pedagógica: Exploração e análise de dados em bancos
computacionais. Tese de Doutorado em Educação. PUSP.
Lobo da Costa, N. M. (2006). Formação continuada de professores:
uma experiência de trabalho colaborativo com matemática e
tecnologia. In: Nacarato, A.M., Paiva, M. A. V. (orgs) A formação
do professor que ensina matemática: perspectivas e pesquisas, 67-
196. Belo Horizonte: Autêntica.
Lobo da Costa, N. M., Prado, M.E.B.B., Pietropaolo, R. C. (2010).
Currículo e Mediação Pedagógica online. IX Colóquio sobre
Questões Curriculares / V Colóquio Luso-Brasileiro , Porto,
Portugal. Disponível http://www.fpce.up.pt/ciie/publs/Actas_
IX_Coloquio_QuestoesCurriculares_Junho2010.zip (acesso em
20/01/2011).
Lobo da Costa, N. M., Prado, M.E.B.B., Campos, T.M.M. (2008).
Formação do professor de Matemática: Uma abordagem
pedagógica usando recursos de ambientes virtuais In: 6o Congreso
Internacional de Educación Superior Universidad, Havana, Cuba.
Lopes, C. A. E. (2003). O conhecimento profissional dos professores e
suas relações com Estatística e Probabilidade na Educação
Infantil. Tese de Doutorado em Educação Campinas: FE/Unicamp.
Pietropaolo, Ruy, C.; Lobo da Costa, N., M.; Prado, M. E. B.B. (2009).
Análise da constituição de um grupo de pesquisa sobre formação
de professores de matemática In: Anais do IV Seminário
Internacional de Pesquisa em Educação Matemática, Taguatinga,
DF.
Ponte, J. P. (1997). O conhecimento profissional dos professores de
matemática. Relatório final de Projecto “O saber dos professores:
Concepções e práticas”. Lisboa: DEFCUL.
Prado, M.E.B.B. (2003). Educação a distância e formação do
professor: redimensionando concepções de aprendizagem . Tese de
Doutorado em Educação. São Paulo: PUCSP.
Prado, M.E.B.B. (2006). A Mediação Pedagógica: suas relações e
interdependencias. Anais do XVII do Simpósio Brasileiro de
Informática na Educação . SBC – Sociedade Brasileira de
Computação. Brasília.
Prado, M.E.B.B. & Valente, J.A. (2002). A educação a distância
possibilitando a formação do professor com base no ciclo da
prática pedagógica. In: Moraes, M.C. (org.) Educação a
Distância: fundamentos e práticas. Campinas, SP: NIED-
UNICAMP.
SBEM - Relatório do GT7 – Formação de Professores que Ensinam
Matemática. (2007). Coordenação: Adair Mendes Nacarato e
Maria Auxiliadora Vilela Paiva. III SIPEM – Águas de Lindóia.
Disponível em: http://www.sbem.com.br/files/RelatorioGT7.pdf.
(acesso em 01/10/2011).
Notes
1 According to the reference document available at: portal.mec.gov.br/arquivos/pdf/co-
nae/documento_referencia.pdf
2 SIPEM: International Research Seminar in Mathematical Education, Águas de
Lindóia, São Paulo, Brazil, 2006.GT7: Research Group about Teacher Development.
3 GT7 report, available at: http://www.sbem.com.br/files/RelatorioGT7.pdf
4 In English, “Continued Education for Mathematics Teachers of Elementary and High
Schools: Establishing a Study and Research Group about Development Processes”.
5 For more details about CHIC, see Gras (2000) and Almouloud (1992).
Nielce M. Lobo da Costa is Professor at the Program of post-

graduate studies in Mathematics Education, at the Universidade
Bandeirante de São Paulo, Brazil.
Maria E. Brisola Brito Prado is Professor at the Program of
post-graduate studies in Mathematics Education, at the Universi-
dade Bandeirante de São Paulo, Brazil.
should be addressed to the authors at: Av. Braz Leme, 3029, São
Paulo - SP - CEP: 02022-011, Brazil - E-mail address: nielce.lo-
bo@gmail.com, bette.prado@gmail.com.
Uso de artefactos concretos en actividades de geometría

analítica: una experiencia con la elipse
José Carlos Cortés Zavala & Héctor Arturo Soto Rodríguez1
1) Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo. Morelia.

México.
Date of publication: June 24th, 2012
To cite this article: Cortés, J.C.; Soto Rodríguez, H.A. (2012). Uso de
Artefactos Concretos en Actividades de Geometría Analítica: Una
Experiencia con la Elipse. Journal of Research in Mathematics Education,
1(2), 159-193. doi: 10.4471/redimat.2012.09
To link this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.4471/redimat.2012.09
REDIMAT Journal of Research in Mathematics Education Vol. 1 No. 2
The Use of Concrete

June 2012 pp. 159193
Artifacts in Analytic
Geometry: the Ellipse
Experience
José Carlos Cortés Zavala & Héctor Arturo Soto Rodríguez
Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo
Abstract
The purpose of this article is to provide the results of a research on the use of
specific artefacts (two different ellipsographs) for the learning of Mathematics,
specifically in Analytic Geometry on the topic of Ellipse. It was implemented
one activity for each one of the artefact, by means of the use of working sheets
that guided the students for tem to build the formal concept of Ellipse, answe
ring to the corresponding questions in each activity as well as manipulating the
ellipsograph. All with the aim to facilitate to the students the understanding and
learning of the mathematic concepts.
Keywords: analytic geometry, ellipsograph, collaborative learning
2012 Hipatia Press

ISSN 20143621
DOI: 10.4471/redimat.2012.09
June 2012 pp. 159193.
Uso de Artefactos
Concretos en Actividades de
Geometría Analítica: Una
experiencia Con la Elipse
José Carlos Cortés Zavala & Héctor Arturo Soto Rodríguez
Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo
Abstract
El propósito de éste articulo, es dar a conocer los resultados de una investiga

ción relacionada con el uso de artefactos concretos (dos elipsógrafos distintos)
para el aprendizaje de las Matemáticas, específicamente en Geometría Analítica
con el tema de Elipse. Se implementaron una actividad por cada uno de los ar
tefactos, a través del uso de hojas de trabajo las cuales guían a los estudiantes
para que ellos puedan construir el concepto formal de Elipse, respondiendo las
preguntas correspondientes en cada actividad así como manipulando el elipsó
grafo en cuestión. Lo anterior con el objetivo de facilitar la comprensión y el
aprendizaje de conceptos matemáticos por parte de los alumnos.
Keywords: geometría analítica, elipsógrafos, aprendizaje colaborativo.
2012 Hipatia Press

ISSN 20143621
DOI: 10.4471/redimat.2012.09
E
161 Cortés Zavala y Soto Rodríguez Una experiencia con la elipse
n el siglo XVII el concepto de Geometría Analítica poseía un

significado diferente a nuestra noción moderna. La principal
diferencia radica en que antes las ecuaciones no representaban
curvas, sino que las curvas daban origen a una ecuación y en la actuali
dad la curva es dada a partir de un análisis de propiedades algebraicas.
Durante mucho tiempo se han creado una infinidad de artefactos físi
cos con la finalidad de trazar algunas de las cónicas, se les han llamado,
Parabológrafos (trazan parábolas), Elipsógrafos (trazan elipses) e Hiper
bológrafos (trazado de hipérbolas). Revisando el libro de Dyck (1994)
encontramos artefactos articulados para el dibujo de curvas desde la an
tigua Grecia. Meneachmus (~380 ~320 A.C.) tenía un dispositivo
mecánico para construir cónicas; Proclus (418485) también menciona a
Isidoro de Mileto quien tenía un instrumento para trazar una parábola
(Dyck, 1994, p.58). Leonardo Da Vinci (14521519) inventó un elipsó
grafo con un movimiento invertido de la conexión fija. Los dispositivos
mecánicos para dibujar curvas fueron utilizados también por Albrecht
Dűrer (14711528). René Descartes (15961650) publicó su Geometría
(1637) libro en el cual daba métodos geométricos para dibujar cada cur
va con algunos aparatos, y estos aparatos eran a menudo articulados. En
el año de 1657, Van Schooten publicó su “Exercitationum mathematica
rum libri quinque”. Como el título sugiere, la obra se divide en cinco
"libros" de un centenar de páginas cada uno. El libro I es una revisión
bastante estándar de la aritmética y la geometría ordinaria. El libro II
contiene construcciones con regla. En el Libro III, van Schooten trata
de reconstruir algunas de las obras de Apolonio en lugares geométricos.
Este fue un importante tema de investigación de la época. El libro IV
contiene la obra más conocida de Van Schooten. Su título es " Orgánica
conicarum sectionum ", o "Los instrumentos de las secciones cónicas."
La palabra "orgánica" está más estrechamente relacionada con el órgano
como instrumento musical que a la "orgánica" a veces encontramos en
la química o la agricultura. Como sugiere el título, el capítulo describe
una variedad de bellos artefactos para la elaboración de las diferentes
secciones cónicas. En 1877 A. B. Kempe publicó un pequeño libro:
Cómo dibujar una línea recta: Una conferencia sobre artefactos
articulados. Mencionó a J. Watt (17361819) y también el trabajo de J.J.
Sylvester (18141897), Richard Roberts (17891864), P.L. Chebyshev
REDIMAT Journal of Research in Mathematics Education, 1 (2) 162
(18211894), Harry Hart (18481920), William Kingdon Clifford (1845

1879), Jules Antoine Lissajous (18221880), Samuel Roberts (1827
1913), y Arthur Cayley (18211895)1.
Por otro lado, Franz Reuleaux (18291905), quién a menudo es llama
do "el padre del diseño de las máquinas modernas”, tenía muchos meca
nismos de líneas rectas en su colección del modelo cinemático. La
Universidad Cornell tiene una colección con cerca de 220 modelos ci
nemáticos distintos de F. Reuleaux y 39 de ellos son mecanismos sobre
el movimiento rectilíneo2.
Finalmente, también tenemos el caso de Iván Ivánovich Artobolevski,
(1905 – 1977). Fue un ingeniero mecánico, y científico ruso en el
campo de la Teoría de Mecanismos y Máquinas. Fue miembro de la
Academia de Ciencias de la Unión Soviética desde 1946. Artobolevski
propuso una clasificación de los mecanismos espaciales y desarrolló
métodos para su análisis estrucural, cinemático y cinetostático. Recopiló
en “Les mécanismes dans la technique moderne” (Artobolevski, 1975)
varios artefactos mecánicos cuya finalidad era trazar alguna cónica.
Marco conceptual
Resultados recientes de investigación constatan la importancia del uso
de nuevas tecnologías en la enseñanza de las matemáticas y las ciencias,
y en la incorporación al trabajo científico por parte de los estudiantes.
En sesiones de trabajo dirigido, los alumnos son capaces de desplegar
recursos matemáticos que se desencadenan por medio de la compren
sión de nociones (Hoyos, Capponi y Génèves, 1998), o se promueve la
creatividad y el ingenio en el diseño científico mediante el uso de nue
vas tecnologías (Verillon y Rabardel, 1995; Jörgensen, 1999). Por otro
lado, perspectivas teóricas y prácticas alternativas complementarias en
didáctica de las matemáticas (Mariotti et al 1997; Bartolini et al 2003,
2004; Bartolini 2007, Boero et al., 1996, 1997; Arzarello, Robutti 2004,
Jill et al 2002), argumentan a favor de la introducción en el salón de cla
ses de contextos históricos de recreación de la experiencia científica, en
particular aquéllos que tienen que ver con la práctica de la geometría y
que utilizan modelos mecánicos o articulados de máquinas para dibujar
o trazar, como un medio de generación de ideas o nociones matemáticas
complejas. Por otro lado, como menciona Duval la articulación de
registros semióticos de representación, en este caso el gráfico y el al

gebraico, deben ser necesarios para la aprehensión conceptual (Duval
1995).
El trabajo de investigación realizado tuvo como propósito experi
mentar actividades que puedan servir como recurso didáctico, para
acercar a los estudiantes de bachillerato hacia la demostración y cons
trucción de conceptos en geometría Analítica, específicamente el de
Elipse, utilizando dos elipsógrafos los cuales son el Elipsógrafo de pa
lancas y colisa de Inwards y el Antiparalelogramo articulado de Van
Schooten.
En las figuras siguientes se presentan los 2 elipsógrafos: el Elipsó
grafo de palancas y colisa de Inwards y el Antiparalelogramo articula
do de Van Schooten, los cuales fueron realizados con acrílico (modelo
físico) y construidos también con Geogebra (modelo virtual).
Figuras 1 y 2 . Elipsógrafo de palancas y colisa de Inwards construcción física y construc

ción virtual. Figura 3 y 4. Antiparalelogramo articulado de Van Schooten construcción fí
sica y construcción virtual.
Para cada uno de los modelos desarrollados, tanto el físico como el

virtual, se diseñó una hoja de trabajo que servía de guía para encontrar
el modelo matemático inmerso. Es decir a través de la manipulación
guiada de los artefactos se espera que el estudiante descubra el modelo
matemático inmerso en el artefacto, esto permitirá la reversibilidad del
conocimiento (Piaget, 1950).
Metodología
La investigación se llevó a cabo en un ambiente de trabajo colaborati
vo, que incentiva la cooperación entre individuos para conocer, com
partir y ampliar la información que cada uno tiene sobre el tema.
Es de carácter cualitativo, es decir las conclusiones y comentarios que
se desprenden del análisis de datos obtenidos, no son producto de las
relaciones numéricas que se puedan obtener de las hojas de trabajo
aplicadas, sino emergen del análisis de las cualidades asociadas tanto a
las preguntas de las hojas de trabajo, como a los comportamientos de
los estudiantes en cada una de ellas.
En cada uno de los Elipsógrafos seleccionados se analizaron sus ca
racterísticas para así realizar las hojas de trabajo y definir lo que se es
peraba lograr con ellos. Las hojas de trabajo con las respuestas de los
estudiantes, las videograbaciones realizadas durante el trabajo de cada
uno de los equipos, así como las observaciones en el trabajo de campo,
conforman el cuerpo de datos para llevar a cabo el estudio.
Nos proponemos observar el potencial que tiene los Elipsógrafos para
promover el aprendizaje en el salón de clases. Por ello, el proceso para
la implementación de los Elipsógrafos consta de seis etapas:
(1) Selección de artefactos

(2) Descripción y Demostración matemática de los artefactos
(3) Construcción de los artefactos
(4) Realización de actividades didácticas
(5) Etapa de Aplicación
(6) Análisis de los datos
Resultados del cuestionario por ítems
Se revisó la obra de Iván Ivanovich Artobolevski “Les mécanismes

dans la technique moderne” (Artobolevski, 1975), la cual es un com
pendio de varios artefactos que trazan diferentes cónicas. Después se
prosiguió a seleccionar cuáles de ellos eran factibles para poderse
construir, puesto que había artefactos interesantes, pero físicamente
complicados de realizar. De esta manera, los artefactos seleccionados
fueron el Elipsógrafo de palancas y colisa de Inwards y el Antiparale
logramo articulado de Van Schooten.
Descripción y demostración matemática de los artefactos

Elipsógrafo de palancas de Inwards:
Figura 3. Elipsógrafo de palancas y colisa de Inwards
Las longitudes de los segmentos del artefacto satisfacen que EB = BC

= CD = DE, es decir, la figura EBCD es un rombo. Los puntos A y C
se mantienen fijos (focos). El segmento BD es la diagonal del rombo.
El punto K es la intersección entre la corredera 2 y 3. Cuando el seg
mento AE gira alrededor del punto fijo A, el punto k describe una elip
se.
Existe una condición para que dicho artefacto pueda describir una
elipse. La condición es que 1/2 AE > AO (AO = OC) es decir, que la
distancia entre los focos sea menor que el segmento AE.
Por construcción sabemos que:
BC = CD = DE =EB.
Ahora tracemos el segmento KC:
Figura 4. Trazado de segmento KC
Los triángulos KDE y KDC son congruentes por LAL por tener:
(a) DE = DC (por construcción)

(b) KD lado común
(c) Ángulo KDE = Ángulo KDC puesto que BD es diagonal
De la congruencia anterior podemos deducir que:

KC = KE
Observemos que:
AE = AK + KE
AE = AK +KC (por ser KE KC)
Pero AE es constante
AK + KC = constante
Se cumple la condición para que el punto K describa una
elipse según su definición.
Antiparalelogramo articulado de van Schooten:

La base de este artefacto es el Antiparalelogramo ABCD. Cabe men
cionarse que: AB = CD y AD = BC. Se dice que es Antiparalelogramo,
puesto que en el movimiento, el artefacto sigue manteniendo la pro
piedad de no tener dos pares de lados paralelos. Los puntos fijos (fo
cos), son los puntos A y B. Con la intersección de la corredera 1 y 2
obtenemos el punto E. Al mover el artefacto, el punto E tiene despla
zamiento por los segmentos AD y BC, describiendo durante el movi
miento una elipse.
Figura 5. Antiparalelogramo articulado de van Schooten
Por construcción conocemos que:

AB = CD
AD = BC
Ahora tracemos los segmentos CA y DB:
Figura 6. Trazo de los segmentos CA y DB
Ahora tracemos el eje de simetría al cual llamaremos t: Sea M el punto

de la intersección de t con CA y N el punto de la intersección entre t y
BD:
Figura 7. Trazo de los segmentos M y N
Nótese que el trazo del eje de simetría tiene algunas implicaciones in
teresantes en nuestra figura como son las siguientes:
(a) t es perpendicular a BD y AC y los corta en su punto medio

(mediatriz).
(b) t bisecta a los ángulos DEB y CEA.
Ahora tenemos todo lo necesario para afirmar que ∆BEN es congruen

te con ∆DEN por el criterio LAL:
(a) Tienen a EN como lado común.

(b) Angulo BNE = Angulo DNE (porque el eje de simetría es
perpendicular a BD formando ángulos rectos).
(c) BN = ND (puesto que t bisecta a BD por ser eje de
simetría).
∆BEN ∆DEN
También ∆MEA es congruente con ∆MEC:
(a) EM lado común.

(b) Angulo CME = Angulo AME (porque el eje de simetría es
perpendicular a BD formando ángulos rectos).
(c) CM = MA (puesto que t bisecta a AC por ser eje de
simetría).
∆MEA ∆MEC
De las dos congruencias anteriores obtenemos que el ∆AEB es con

gruente con ∆CED por el criterio LLL (ya que de las congruencias an
teriores deducimos que EB ED y EA EC además de que por
construcción conocíamos que AB CD).
De allí vemos que:
AE + EB = AE + ED = AD = cte.
Se cumple la condición para que el punto E describa una elipse
según su definición.
Construcción física de los artefactos

Se trató de adecuar las medidas para cada uno de los artefactos con el
fin de que no fueran muy grandes y que funcionaran adecuadamente de
acuerdo a sus propiedades. En esta etapa se realizaron varios bosquejos
utilizando diferentes materiales.
Los primeros prototipos se construyeron en papel ilustración, el cual
es utilizado para elaborar maquetas. Se cortaban las barras correspon
dientes y después se perforaban en los extremos para por allí unirlas
mediante postes metálicos y obtener el artefacto deseado. Este material
nos proporcionaba una idea de lo que se podría lograr sin embargo
sufrí demasiadas deformaciones durante la manipulación. Después de
éste se trabajó con tireno, el cual nos brindaba un mejor prototipo. Se
decidió que los artefactos tuvieran menor deformación durante el mo
vimiento por lo que se volvieron a construir en tireno de mayor calibre.
Una vez obtenido un prototipo de calidad, se decidió mejorar el
material de construcción. Fue difícil encontrar a una persona que los

realizara en metal, una vez que se logró lo anterior, surgieron distintos
problemas al trabajar los distintos metales, por lo que los artefactos
quedaban muy bromosos y pesados.
Después del fracaso en metal, se optó por llevarlos a cabo en Acríli
co, obteniendo de esta manera los artefactos que se probaron ante es
tudiantes de bachillerato.
Figura 8. Elipsógrafos en diferentes materiales
Realización de actividades didácticas

Se comenzó tomando en cuenta las características de cada artefacto así
como su demostración matemática. A partir de allí se decidió que di
chas actividades deberían de consistir en una serie de preguntas que
invitaran a los estudiantes a manipular cada artefacto, que conocieran
cada parte que los conforma, que observaran las figuras que se forma
ban entre sus barras así como las longitudes de las mismas, también
que verificaran su comportamiento mientras dicho artefacto tenía mo
vimiento así como en estado inmóvil. Lo que se deseaba era que los
alumnos, a partir de esa guía y de la manipulación del artefacto pudie
ran construir por sí mismos el concepto de elipse, deduciendo el mo
delo matemático involucrado en cada artefacto. De esta manera se hizo
una actividad didáctica por cada artefacto (ver annexos).
Etapa de aplicación
Las actividades didácticas desarrolladas fueron aplicadas primeramen
te en una prueba piloto dividida en dos sesiones. Auxiliándonos de los
estudiantes se pretendía con esta prueba, afinar detalles, cambiar el or
den de las preguntas de ser necesario, quitar o agregar alguna de ellas
así como mejorar su redacción, etc.

Así finalmente haciendo las modificaciones pertinentes a las hojas de
trabajo se hizo la prueba formal, la cual fue dividida en dos sesiones.
Se contó con dos cámaras de video grabación en cada una de ellas.
Primero se aplicó la actividad del Elipsógrafo de palancas y colisa de
Inwards, ésta se llevó a cabo el día jueves 6 de Mayo del 2010, en el
CBTIS 149 en Morelia Michoacán, con una duración aproximada de
150 minutos. En esta ocasión se realizó con ocho alumnos del cuarto
semestre de la especialidad de Administración, cuatro hombres y cua
tro mujeres. Se formaron cuatro equipos de dos integrantes cada uno,
formados por un hombre y una mujer.
En la segunda actividad se aplico el Antiparalelogramo articulado de
van Schooten, se llevó a cabo el día miércoles 13 de Mayo del 2010,
en el mismo lugar donde se realizo la primera sesión con una duración
aproximada de 120 minutos y con los equipos conformados en la se
sión anterior.
Análisis de los datos

Se digitalizaron las hojas de trabajo de todos los equipos y se analiza
ron las mismas. Posteriormente se revisaron las notas de observación
realizadas durante las actividades así como los videos de las mismas y
la información obtenida de ellos se organizó en tablas que contenían
columnas para el episodio, tiempo y explicación de los equipos. Esto
nos permitió seleccionar los diálogos más importantes y luego resca
tarlos para analizarlos más a fondo. Sin embargo, por ser muy extensa
la información sólo se muestran algunas de las respuestas más rele
vantes.
Discusión
A continuación, primero se discuten los resultados obtenidos respecto
del uso del elipsógrafo de palancas y colisa de Inwards, y luego se ex
ponen los resultados obtenidos en el caso del antiparalelogramo arti
culado de van Schooten.
Resultados de la hoja de trabajo del elipsógrafo de palancas y colisa

de Inwards
Los resultados que se muestran a continuación corresponden a las pre

guntas 7 y 8, presentando en esta última el razonamiento de dos equi
pos participantes. En cada diálogo presentado se indica el nombre del
equipo participante así como el nombre de sus integrantes. De la mis
ma manera se indica con el nombre de Héctor al profesor investigador.
Se espera que los alumnos puedan responder la pregunta 7 en fun
ción de alguna de las características obtenidas en la pregunta anterior,
el enunciado es: ¿El segmento BD, siempre pasa por la mitad del seg
mento CE? Justifica tu respuesta. Observemos lo que el equipo de Ga
bi y Uriel respondió así como en que se basaron para llegar a ello:
Participantes: Gabi y Uriel (Gabriela, Uriel) y Héctor.

Introducción: Los alumnos tratan de dar la respuesta de la pre
gunta 7 y la comienzan a escribir en sus hojas de trabajo. Des
pués de eso se les pide que mencionen su respuesta a dicha
pregunta. Se les hacen más preguntas al respecto y ellos tratan
de responder.
Gabriela: ¿Por qué sería?

Uriel: Es un eje de simetría.
Gabriela: Es la diagonal… ¿así nada más?, ¿BD es eje de si
metría de CE?
Uriel: Pues sí, el punto K no cambiaría de distancia entre el
EC también.
Gabriela: No influye, K no influye (señala el punto K), nada
más te está preguntando de estos (señala los puntos D y B). En
tonces por qué es su eje de simetría… siempre va a ser su eje de
simetría.
Uriel: Pues… sí.
Héctor: ¿En qué pregunta van?
Gabriela: En la siete.
Héctor: ¿En la siete?, a ver ¿qué respondieron? Ga
briela: Que si porque EC es el eje de simetría (señala el seg
mento EC en su artefacto).
Héctor: ¿Por qué?

Gabriela: Este… se supone que nosotros estamos tomando que
es un rombo, ¿no?
Uriel: Rombo.
Gabriela: Entonces tiene dos ejes de simetría, lo que viene sien
do éste (señala el segmento CE) y viene siendo éste (señala el
segmento BE).
Uriel: BD (corrigiendo a Gabriela que señaló BE).
Gabriela: Ajá, éste (señala el BD) y éste (señala el CE). Enton
ces se supone que aquí, quedaría hacia la mitad si quedáramos
en éste (simula con sus manos que dobla el artefacto por CE).
Entonces al doblarlo (ahora por BD) automáticamente me esta
formando su eje de simetría… y es una figura que siempre lo va
a tener allí y aquí (señala el segmento CE).
Héctor: ¿Siempre en distintas posiciones se cumple que la dis
tancia de C al segmento BD y de E a BD es la misma?
Uriel: Sí.
Gabriela: Cuando es un eje en el rombo sí porque sus cuatro la
dos son iguales.
Héctor: Ok sigan adelante…
Observaciones
(1) En la pregunta 6, se les pedía que observaran la figura formada por
su artefacto cuando este estuviera fijo, que dijeran de qué figura se
trataba así como algunas de sus características. Allí se dieron cuenta de
que se trataba de un rombo y entre sus características mencionan que el
rombo tiene dos ejes de simetría.
Figura 9. Respuesta 6 del equipo 3 en sus hojas de trabajo

(2) Ellos ya se habían dado cuenta de que su rombo tenía dos ejes de
simetría y que uno de ellos era el segmento BD y el otro eje lo era el
segmento CE, por lo que no tuvieron dificultad alguna para contestar.
Una buena observación al momento de tratar de responder la pregunta

6 les dio de inmediato la respuesta de la pregunta 7. De antemano ellos
conocían que su rombo tenía dos ejes de simetría y de esa manera no
dudaron en responder que BD siempre pasa por la mitad del segmento
CE.
En la pregunta 8 se espera que los estudiantes lleguen a que los
triángulos que se les pide que comparen son congruentes y de allí pue
dan responder sin mucha dificultad las preguntas posteriores. Su enun
ciado dice lo siguiente: Deja fijo el artefacto y traza con tu pincelín el
segmento KC. ¿Cómo son los triángulos KED y KCD entre ellos? Jus
tifica tu respuesta. A continuación se mostrará el diálogo correspon
diente a la respuesta mencionada por parte del Equipo 1.
Participantes: Equipo 1 (Moisés, Ayla) y Héctor.

Introducción: Los integrantes del Equipo 1 y el profesor inves
tigador tratan de dibujar con ayuda de un pincelín los triángulos
KED y KCD (pregunta 8). Después de hacerlo Moisés trata de
explicar cómo son dichos triángulos entre ellos, usando la ayuda
obtenida por respuestas anteriores y sus observaciones.
Héctor: Ya márcale y después hacemos lo demás, para que vean

los triángulos que ya marcaron o algo así, pero bueno, si no se
puede (trazar adecuadamente dichos triángulos) pues nada mas
obsérvenlos a través del artefacto. Bueno te piden el KCD
(triángulo), ¿verdad?
Ayla: Sí.
Héctor: Tienes que tenerlo fijo (el artefacto) para que no se te

quede así (indicándoles como deben fijar el artefacto). ¿Y cuáles
son los triángulos que se piden?
Moisés: KED y KCD. Es que si esta recta (señala el segmento
BD) siempre está dividiendo al cuadrilátero en dos partes igua
les, cualquier punto de aquí (se refiere a cualquier punto que es
te sobre el segmento BD), pues será la misma distancia de E al
punto K y de C al punto K. Entonces sí son distancias iguales,
esta distancia (CD) es igual a esta (DE), y la distancia (DK) será
igual para los dos.
Héctor: Pero bueno ¿KD qué sería entonces si lo divide en 2
partes iguales (al cuadrilátero)?
Moisés: ¿Cómo?, ¿Qué sería que?
Héctor: ¿Qué es BD por ejemplo? En la pregunta 7 se te pide
que justifiques si el segmento BD siempre por la… a ok (mues
tra Moisés la justificación de la pregunta 7). Entonces ¿por qué
son congruentes? (señalando los triángulos en el artefacto).
Moisés: Este lado siempre será igual (señala el segmento KD)
porque el segmento BD siempre está dividiendo en dos al cua
drilátero. Entonces si está aquí o aquí (señala el recorrido que
hace el punto K) o en el punto que sea siempre va a ser igual en
los dos lados, a los dos triángulos. Entonces si se pone por
ejemplo aquí, como es a la mitad, pues el segmento EK y KC
siempre serán igual, según el movimiento en que se dé, siempre
estarán de la misma longitud y el ED y CD miden 12 centíme
tros, es decir lo mismo.
Héctor: Ah ok.
Moisés: Siempre serán congruentes en cualquier movimiento.
Héctor: Pues anota tu justificación allí y si te hace falta espacio
puedes anotarla atrás, sólo pon que la respuesta la anotaste atrás
en caso de que no te llegue a caber.
Observaciones
(1) En preguntas anteriores, los alumnos tuvieron la posibilidad de
medir los segmentos del artefacto y darse cuenta que algunos de ellos
son iguales entre sí.
(2) En otras palabras, Moisés logra darse cuenta de que BD es una dia
gonal del rombo y que por esa razón siempre va a pasar por la mitad
del segmento CE.
(3) Otro aspecto importante es que Moisés logra darse cuenta que no
importa el movimiento que se le dé al artefacto ni la posición en que
este quede, que siempre va a mantenerse que los segmentos CK y KE
van a ser iguales, puesto que los dos segmentos se relacionan con el
punto K y si este se mueve afecta de la misma manera a ambos seg
mentos.
(4) Él justifica que los triángulos KED y KCD son congruentes puesto
que CK = CE, CD = ED puesto que los midió y ambos lados miden 12
cm, y que el lado KD va ser el mismo para ambos triángulos, es decir
encontró una congruencia LLL.
(5) Se pudo observar que los alumnos conocen el concepto de con
gruencia pero no lo recuerdan completamente y les cuesta trabajo ar
gumentar el por qué los triángulos mencionados son congruentes.
Figura 11. Respuesta escrita de la pregunta 8 del equipo 1

Así pues, a través del análisis de estos datos se pone de manifiesto que
los integrantes de dicho equipo conocen el término “congruencia” y
saben en qué situaciones pueden utilizarlo, así mismo se pudo observar
que no pueden recordar los distintos criterios de congruencia, y no
obtienen una congruencia distinta a LLL.
Cabe mencionar que en esta actividad, los alumnos cuentan con una
regla para medir los segmentos. A partir de la evidencia recabada, se
logró deducir que les hizo falta más observación y ver los segmentos
involucrados en dicha pregunta para obtener la congruencia solicitada.
Ahora veamos lo que contestó el equipo de Gabi y Uriel en la misma
pregunta y comparemos la respuesta entre ambos equipos:
Participantes: Gabi y Uriel (Gabriela, Uriel) y Héctor.
Introducción: Los alumnos tratan de responder la pregunta 8,
donde Gabriela menciona que los triángulos KED y KCD son
congruentes. Ella trata de convencer a su compañero del por qué
dichos triángulos son congruentes así como explicárselo tam
bién al profesor investigador.
Gabriela: ¿Cómo son los triángulos QED?...pero si de este lado

no se hace triángulo (señala los puntos mencionados).
Uriel: KED (corrigiendo a Gabi la cual dijo QED. Señala tam
bién los puntos).
Gabriela: Y KCD pero jamás me dijo que trazáramos este lado.
Bueno se supone que son… ¡espera espera!, ¿cómo se llaman
cuando son?... son congruentes. Son dos triángulos congruentes
porque has de cuenta que…
Uriel: No, pero mira este lado está más chico (señalando el lado
EK).
Gabriela: Pero por aquí va la línea esta, esta de aquí que parte de
la línea de en medio, es la línea fija (traza el segmento KE). En
tonces si marcas esto de aquí (segmento ED).
<Trazan los triángulos KED y KCD con ayuda de su artefacto y
de su pincelín>
Gabriela: Este lo doblas y quedan iguales (simula doblar los
triángulos KED y KCD por BD), entonces los dos triángulos
son congruentes.
Uriel: No, es que no serían congruentes porque si comparáramos
los triángulos quedarían así (señala que los triángulos no que
darían uno sobre otro).
Gabriela: Al levantarlos, los dos picos quedarían arriba, que
darían igual (con sus manos indica que dichos puntos
se tocan).
Uriel: Sí pero, ¿qué te están diciendo? (refiriéndose a la pregun
ta).
Gabriela: Deja fijo el artefacto, ¿cómo son los triángulos KCD y
KDE? (etiqueta los triángulos que previamente trazó). En este
con este (indica los triángulos a comparar).
Héctor: ¿Por qué me dices que son triángulos congruentes?
Gabriela: No me acuerdo como se dice cuando los dos son
iguales, que están opuestos sólo por una diagonal.
Héctor: A ver, ¿este lado cómo es para los dos triángulos, el
KD?
Gabriela: El KD es igual.
Héctor: ¿Es igual para los dos?
Gabriela: Sí.
Uriel: Para los dos.
Héctor: ¿Por qué?
Uriel: Porque mide lo mismo.
Héctor: Concéntrense sólo en el segmento KD, ¿qué pasa con
KD?
Gabriela: Es la diagonal media.
Héctor: En estos dos triángulos ¿qué pasa con KD (señalo el
segmento)?, ¿es igual?
Gabriela: Es un cateto de ambos.
Héctor: ¿Cómo es el lado KC con el KE?
Gabriela: ¿KC con KD?
Uriel: Con KE
Gabriela: Son… ¿cómo se dice?
Héctor: A ver ¿por qué no los mides?
Uriel: Son iguales
Gabriela: Mide 5 (CK), se supone que también mide 5
(KE)…son iguales (mide los segmentos). De CK y KE es igual
también (afirmando). Por lo tanto quedaría que de C a D y de D
aE…
Uriel: Deben de medir lo mismo.
Gabriela: Miden lo mismo (CD=DE), entonces los dos triángu
los son iguales solamente que KD es un eje de
simetría para los dos. Es el eje de simetría de una figura y es por

eso que se forman dos triángulos.
Héctor: Por eso son ¿cómo me dijiste?
Gabriela: Congruentes…
Observaciones
(1) Gabriela usa su artefacto para trazar los triángulos KED y KCE.
Remarca los lados de los triángulos con su pincelín por debajo del
artefacto.
Figura 12. Integrantes del equipo 3 remarcando los

triángulos KED y KCE
(2) Una vez qué quedan remarcados los lados de sus triángulos opta
por quitar su artefacto de la hoja de dibujo. Prefiere trabajar con los
triángulos que dibujó previamente, etiquetando los puntos correspon
dientes con los que tenía el artefacto en dicha posición.
Figura 13. Triángulos remarcados y etiquetados en la hoja

de dibujo del equipo 3
(3) Los integrantes de este equipo sabían por su respuesta de la pre

gunta 7 que el segmento BD es un eje de simetría. Tratan de justificar
que los triángulos KED y KCD son congruentes porque dicho seg
mento (BD) los separa y al doblarlos por allí los triángulos van a pe
garse el uno con el otro. Al analizar las evidencias recabadas se deduce
que intuitivamente trataban de responder de esa manera, al saber que la
figura era un rombo, que tenía como ejes de simetría a los segmentos
BD y EC y que ED y CD son barras del artefacto que miden lo mismo
(esto lo conocieron en la respuesta de la primera pregunta). Además
también conocían que el punto K se desplazaba sobre el segmento BD.
Su razonamiento tuvo que ver con todo lo anterior y se dieron cuenta
de que al medir lo mismo las barras ED y CD y saber que dichos seg
mentos cambiaban de longitud por estar conectados al punto K, los
segmentos EK y CK cambiaban de la misma manera y podían medir lo
mismo.
(4) Intuitivamente y por observación pudieron darse cuenta de que los
segmentos EK y CK eran iguales, antes de sugerirles que midieran di
chos segmentos Uriel respondió inmediatamente que dichos segmentos
eran iguales, aún cuando Gabriela media los segmentos, Uriel seguía
mencionando que deberían de medir lo mismo.
(5) Les costó mucho trabajo tratar de justificar su respuesta, aún cuan
do habían contestado bien las preguntas anteriores a esta.
Figura 13. Respuesta escrita del equipo 3 en sus hojas de

trabajo
Así pues, podemos ver que los integrantes de dicho equipo conocen el
término “congruencia” y saben en qué situaciones pueden utilizarlo,
pero también, a través de la evidencia recabada se observó que no re
cuerdan los criterios de congruencia distintos al LLL, se deduce que
esto ocurre ya que en la actividad los alumnos pueden medir los seg
mentos con regla.
Resultados del antiparalelogramo articulado de van Schooten
Las primeras preguntas tienen que ver con las figuras que se forman
con los segmentos del artefacto así como que segmentos cambian de
longitud durante el movimiento y cuales no lo hacen. Analizaremos lo
que ocurrió en las preguntas 7, 10 y 14.
El enunciado de la pregunta 7 es: Trace los segmentos AC y BD.
¿Cuál es la figura que se forma con los segmentos AC, BD, AB y
CD? Menciona algunas de sus características.
A continuación veremos lo que contestaron Gabriela y Uriel así co
mo las dificultades y aciertos que tuvieron en la pregunta 7.
Participantes: Gabi y Uriel (Gabriela, Uriel)
Introducción: En la pregunta 7 los integrantes de este equipo
afirmaron que la figura formada por su artefacto fijo era un tra
pecio. Entonces a partir de ello comienzan a mencionar algunas
de sus características y Gabriela las comienza a escribir mien
tras algunas de ellas son dictadas por Uriel.
Gabriela: Estos dos no son paralelos en sí (señala los segmentos

AB y CD).
Uriel: No, no son paralelos.
Gabriela: Entonces se forma un trapecio y luego sus caracterís
ticas… tiene cuatro lados.
Uriel: AC y BD son paralelos.
Gabriela: ¿AC y qué?
Uriel: AC y BD son paralelos, ¿qué más?
Gabriela: AB y CD tienen la misma longitud
Uriel: Pues si quieres (anotarlo).
Gabriela: ¿Y cuáles son las otras características?...tiene un
eje de simetría aquí, este de aquí (lo señala en su artefacto fijo),

si ¿verdad?
Uriel: Uju.
Gabriela: ¿Encuentras otra, otra característica?
Uriel: Que su perímetro siempre será igual aunque cambie a re
cuadro (se refiere a que si mueve el artefacto su trapecio puede
cambiar y ser un cuadrado, esto lo dice mientras observa el mo
vimiento del artefacto). Sí, aunque cambie (ahora observa el ar
tefacto fijo).
Gabriela: Son las únicas características porque aquí ya lo tene
mos de una manera inmóvil (el artefacto) y no se te pide que lo
vuelvas a mover. Tiene cuatro lados, AC y BD son paralelos, AB
y CD tienen la misma longitud y tiene un eje de simetría.
Observaciones
(1) Es muy importante que los alumnos se den cuenta que la figura
formada es un trapecio (isósceles) puesto que esto es la base para lle
gar a la demostración.
(2) Los alumnos mantuvieron fijo el artefacto, mencionaron algunas
características y después trazaron los segmentos AC y BD. Después de
esto quitaron su artefacto y lo colocaron en otra parte tratando de po
nerlo en la misma posición que tenía antes de cambiarlo de lugar. Des
pués de esto continuaron observándolo y mencionando características.
Figura 14. El equipo 3 trazando su trapecio
(3) Los integrantes de este equipo mencionan que el trapecio tiene un

eje de simetría y Gabriela lo señala en su artefacto. Este hecho es im
portante, puesto que es fundamental para responder la siguiente
(4) En su respuesta mencionan todas las propiedades del trapecio isós

celes aunque no se dan cuenta de ello y sólo nombran a su figura como
trapecio.
(5) Fue importante que los estudiantes se dieran cuenta que al mover el
artefacto y mantener paralelo el segmento AB con el CD se forma un
cuadrado. Cabe mencionar que las indicaciones sugeridas antes de res
ponder la pregunta 7 se hacen con la finalidad de evitar llegar a dicha
figura, puesto que de esa forma puede haber confusiones para respon
der las siguientes preguntas.
Al analizar estos resultados podemos ver que la buena observación,
conocimiento y acordarse un poco de sus clases de geometría de los
estudiantes, fue clave para darse cuenta de la figura que se formaba en
las condiciones pedidas en la pregunta 7, así como para rescatar pro
piedades del trapecio. Lo más importante fue que lograron darse cuen
ta de que su trapecio tiene un eje de simetría, ya que de allí podrían
responder sin ningún problema la pregunta 8.
Ahora, el siguiente diálogo, mostrará el razonamiento usado por los
Sexys para responder la pregunta 10 la cual dice lo siguiente: Compara
los triángulos MEA y MEC. ¿Cómo son entre ellos? Justifica tu res
puesta.
Participantes: Los Sexys (Luz, Jorge) y Héctor.
Introducción: Los integrantes de este equipo se encuentran jus
tificando la pregunta 10, en donde responden que los triángulos
MEA y MEC son congruentes. Tratan de explicar su respuesta.
Jorge: ¿Cuáles son congruentes aquí?

Luz: Por eso, allí te va. Ponle…el segmento AE es congruente
(observa con atención el artefacto).
Jorge: ¿Cuál?
Luz: AE es congruente con el segmento CE… y luego el seg
mento AM es congruente con el segmento CM.
Jorge: Y ambos comparten (lo interrumpe Luz)…
Luz: Ambos triángulos comparten el segmento ME…
Héctor: ¿Cuáles triángulos estás tomando en cuenta para res
ponder la pregunta 10?
Jorge: Éste y éste, estos dos (señala los triángulos MEA y
MEC).
Luz: Estos dos (los señala) y aquí nosotros decimos que los
triángulos también son congruentes.
Héctor: ¿Sí?, ¿por qué?
Luz: Porque … (Jorge la interrumpe)
Jorge: Porque su lado, su segmento AE y el EC son congruentes,
igual que el W, digo el M.
Luz: El MC y el MA tienen la misma longitud.
Jorge: Y comparten el ME (lo señala en su dibujo).
Héctor: ¿Y por qué me dicen que el segmento MC y MA tienen
la misma longitud? (señalo dichos segmentos)
Jorge: Pues porque…
Luz: Pues porque…
Jorge: El punto M…(es interrumpido por Luz)
Luz: Está a la mitad del segmento AC.
Héctor: ¿Por qué es la intersección del eje de simetría?
Luz: Sí.
Héctor: Ok. En la siguiente pregunta quiero que se auxilien de
estas dos que acaban de responder para tratar de contestarla.
Observaciones
(1) A diferencia del equipo anterior, Jorge y Luz contestaron de una

mejor manera la pregunta 9. Respondieron que los triángulos BEN y
DEN eran congruentes puesto que todos los lados eran iguales, indi
cando que lados correspondientes medían lo mismo. De esta manera
lograron darse cuenta de que la respuesta a esta pregunta (pregunta 10)

era análoga a la anterior.
Figura 16. Respuesta escrita del equipo 4
(2) Luz le dictaba la respuesta a Jorge para que él la escribiera aunque

Jorge también observaba el artefacto y hacía comentarios. Su respuesta
quedó muy parecida a la de la pregunta 9.
Figura 17. Respuesta escrita de la pregunta 10 del equipo 4
En este caso vemos que los integrantes de este equipo demostraron sa
ber lo que es una congruencia, aunque posiblemente no recuerden los
distintos criterios. Algo importante fue que se auxiliaron de la medi
ción de segmentos y por esta razón, en esta pregunta y en la anterior
respondieron que los triángulos en cuestión eran congruentes por LLL.
Los dos diálogos siguientes muestran la respuesta del equipo deno
minado Los Sexys a la pregunta 14, la cual es la siguiente: Reflexiona
sobre tus respuestas anteriores y escribe con tus palabras que es una
Elipse. Aquí los alumnos deben ver las respuestas anteriores y unirlas
para construir por sí mismos la definición formal de elipse a partir de
la manipulación y observación que los alumnos hicieron del artefacto,
así como de la medición de algunos de sus segmentos.
Participantes: Los Sexys (Luz, Jorge)

Introducción: Tratan de dar con sus palabras la definición de
elipse (pregunta 14). Ambos aportan buenas ideas y al final Luz
dice la posible definición que podrían anotar en sus hojas de
trabajo.
Luz: Es una figura… formada por… bueno que tiene dos focos
y que tiene… un punto… no sé ¿pues qué?... que la suma de los
dos segmentos de…
Jorge: Una elipse es una figura ovalada.
Luz: No.
Jorge: Que tiene dos focos, ¿Cómo no? (le reclama a Luz quien
duda acerca de la afirmación de Jorge).
Luz: Bueno síguele.
<Observan el artefacto>
Luz: Pues podemos decir que la suma de los segmentos relacio
nados con el punto que gira y que forma la elipse siempre es
constante (dice eso mientras mueve el artefacto). O sea en cual
quier punto que lo muevas la suma de este a este (de A a E) más
la de este a este (de E a B) va a ser constante. Eso para mí es
elipse.
Jorge: Sí (hace una seña de aceptación).
Luz: Escríbelo tú.
Observaciones
(1) Este equipo también tuvo algunas complicaciones para definir con
sus palabras el concepto de elipse.
(2) Identificaron rápidamente los elementos del artefacto que partici
pan en la definición de elipse.
(3) No usaron la nomenclatura del artefacto para escribir su definición
de elipse.
En este ejemplo final se puede ver que los alumnos pasan
desapercibidos en más de una ocasión lo que sucede cuando mueven el
artefacto y no toman en cuenta las respuestas que dieron anteriormente
para tratar de ayudarse y dar una definición de elipse a partir de allí.
Conclusiones
El aprendizaje cooperativo es un enfoque de enseñanza, en el cual se
procura utilizar actividades en las cuales es necesaria la ayuda entre
estudiantes, ya sea en pares o grupos pequeños, dentro de un contexto
enseñanzaaprendizaje. El aprendizaje cooperativo se basa en que cada
estudiante intenta mejorar su aprendizaje y resultados, pero también el
de sus compañeros.
Cabe mencionar que a los alumnos se les dificulta trabajar en equipo
puesto que en ocasiones no pueden asimilar las opiniones de sus com
pañeros. En determinadas partes de las actividades así como en deter
minados equipos se observaron fragmentos de debate científico.
Para cada uno de los instrumentos, los estudiantes hicieron uso de re
cursos matemáticos como la utilización de representaciones algebrai
cas, lenguaje geométrico y transformación del lenguaje cotidiano al
lenguaje matemático, como parte fundamental en la construcción del
conocimiento.
Trabajar con instrumentos concretos en el aprendizaje es viable ya
que, se observó que la mayoría de los estudiantes se motivan trabajan
do con ellos, es una dinámica muy distinta a la de una clase cotidiana,
además el concepto en cuestión es construido por ellos mismos por lo
que este puede ser más duradero.
En cuanto a la manipulación del artefacto, al principio les costó tra
bajo moverlo, lo cual se vio reflejado en sus trazos, los cuales queda
ban muy chuecos. Después de realizar varios trazos, los alumnos
obtenían práctica y las elipses les comenzaron a quedar bien. Un pro
blema para los alumnos fue que en ocasiones se salían las tachuelas
con las que se fijaban los puntos fijos (focos) y esto les perjudicaba en
la estética de sus dibujos.
Referencias
Artobolevski, I. (1964). Mechanisms for the Generation of Plane Cur
ves. New York: Pergamon Press.
Artobolevski, I. (1975). Mecanismos en la técnica moderna. Tomo 2,
parte 1. Moscú: Ed. Mir.
Arzarello, E. & Robutti, O. (2004). Approaching functions through
motion experiments. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 57(3).
Special issue.
Bartolini, M. et al. (2004, July). Learning Mathematics with tools. Pa

per presented at the 10th International Congress on Mathematical
Education (ICME10), Copenhagen, Denmark.
Bartolini, M. (2007) Experimental mathematics and the teaching and
learning of proof. Research funded within the PRIN 2005019721
on "Meanings, conjectures, proofs: from basic research in mathe
matics education to curricular implications.
Bartolini, M. et al. (2004, September). The MMLAB: a laboratory of
geometrical instruments. Paper presented at the minisimposio Ap
plicazioni della Matematica all’industria culturale, Venezia, Italy.
Boero, P., Garuti, R. & Mariotti, M. (1996). Some dynamic mental
processes underlying producing and proving conjectures. Procee
dings of PMEXX, Vol. 2 (pp. 121128). Valencia.
Boero, P., Pedemonte, B. & Robotti, E.: (1997). Approaching Theore
tical Knowledge Through Voices and Echoes: a Vygotskian Pers
pective. En E. Pehkonen (1997, Ed.) Proceedings of the 21st
Conference of the International Group for the Psychology of Mat
hematics Education (pp. 8188). Lahti Research and Training
Center. Finland: University of Helsinki.
Dennis, D. (1995). Historical Perspectives for the Reform of Mathe
matics Curriculum: Geometric Curve Drawing Devices and Their
Role in the Transition to an Algebraic Description of Functions.
Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Cornell University.
Duval, R. (1995). Semiosis et Penseé Humain. New York: Peter Lang.
Dyck, W. (1994). Katalog matematischer und matematischphysikalis
cher Modelle, Apparate und Instrumente. New York: Georg Olms
Verlag, Zurich.
Hoyos, V. (2006). Funciones Complementarias de los artefactos en el
aprendizaje de las transformaciones geométricas en la escuela se
cundaria. Enseñanza de las ciencias, 24(1), 31–42.
Hoyos, V. & Falconi, M. (2005). Instrumentos y matemáticas: historia,
fundamentos y perspectivas educativas. México: Ed. UNAM.
Hoyos, V., Capponi, B. & Génevès, B. (1998). Simulation of drawing
machines on CabriII and its dual algebraic symbolization. En In
ge Schwank (Ed.), Proceedings of CERME1, Alemania: Universi
dad de Osnabrueck.
Kempe, A. B. (1877). How to Draw a Straight Line. London, England:
Macmillan and Co.
Mariotti, M.A., Bartolini Bussi, M., Boero, P., Ferri, F. y Garuti, R.

(1997). Approaching Geometry Theorems in Contexts: From His
tory and Epistemology to Cognition. E. Pehkonen (1997, Ed.)
Proceedings of the 21st Conference of the International Group for
the Psychology of Mathematics Education (pp. 180195). Lahti
Research and Training Center. Finland: University of Helsinki.
Piaget, J. (1950). Introducción a la Epistemología Genética. “El pen
samiento matemático”. Buenos Aires: Paidós.
Schooten, F. van (1657). Exercitationum mathematicarum liber IV, sive
de organica conicarum sectionum in plano descriptione. Lugd.
Batav ex officina J. Elsevirii.
Verillon, P. & Rabardel, P. (1995). Cognition and Artifacts: A Contri
bution to the Study of Thought in Relation to Instrumented Acti
vity. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 10(1),
77101.
Vincent, J., Chick, H., & McCrae, B. (2002). Mechanical linkages as
bridges to deductive reasoning: A comparison of two environ
ments. In A. Cockburn & E. Nardi (Eds.), Proceedings of the 26th
Conference of the International Group for the Psychology of Mat
hematics Education, 4 (pp. 313 – 320). Norwich, UK: PME.
Notas
1 Más sobre esto ver en [Kempe].
2 Vea [Denis, D (1995)].
Annexos
Hoja de trabajo para la manipulación del elipsógrafo de palancas
y colisa de Inwards
Nombres de los integrantes del equipo:

Nombre del equipo:
Grado: Institución:
Instrucciones:
1) Se te proporcionará un artefacto, un lápiz, un pincelín y una regla.

2) El punto K es el punto de la intersección de los segmentos AE y
BD.
3) Coloca el lápiz en el punto K, puesto que este es el punto que reali
za el trazo.
4) Podrás mover el artefacto mediante el punto E o bien mediante el
lápiz que se inserta en el punto K. Analiza con mucha atención el lugar
geométrico trazado por el punto K, así como el movimiento en general
del artefacto.
5) Puedes medir la longitud de los segmentos con la regla para contes
tar algunas de las preguntas que se te piden.
6) Responde las preguntas planteadas lo más detallado posible, ha
ciendo uso de la manipulación del artefacto.
7) Al hacer referencia a un segmento, escríbelo de la siguiente forma.
AB ( )
Elipsógrafo de palancas y colisa

de Inwards
1. ¿De cuántas barras está conformado el artefacto? Escribe la longitud

de cada una de ellas, nombrando a cada barra con los puntos de cada
uno de sus extremos (por ejemplo barra AE).
2. Mueve el artefacto y observa sus diferentes puntos durante el movi
miento. Cuando moviste el artefacto, ¿Cuáles fueron los puntos que se
mantuvieron fijos?
3. Al mover el artefacto ¿Cuáles son los segmentos que no cambian de
longitud durante el movimiento?
4. Mueve el artefacto y observa sus segmentos. ¿Cuáles fueron los
segmentos que cambiaron su longitud durante el movimiento?
5. De los segmentos que cambiaron de longitud durante el movimien
to, ¿Cuáles tienen la misma longitud entre ellos?
6. Mueve el artefacto y observa la figura formada por los segmentos
BC, CD, DE y EB. ¿Qué figura se forma?, ¿qué características tiene
dicha figura?
7. ¿El segmento BD, siempre pasa por la mitad del segmento CE? Jus
tifica tu respuesta.
8. Deja fijo el artefacto y traza con tu pincelín el segmento KC. ¿Cómo
son los triángulos KED y KCD entre ellos? Justifica tu respuesta.
9. Suma la distancia de los segmentos AK+KC. ¿A cuánto equivale la
distancia AK+KC? , ¿Siempre se cumple la equivalencia en cualquier
posición del artefacto? Justifica tu respuesta.
10. Auxiliándote de la respuesta de la pregunta 1, ¿Hay alguna barra
del artefacto cuya longitud sea igual a la suma de AK + KC?, ¿cuál es
dicha barra?
11. Acerca el punto A al punto C, mueve el artefacto y observa el trazo.
Después coloca el punto A sobre el punto C, mueve el artefacto y ob
serva el trazo. ¿Cómo se comportaron estos trazos en comparación con
el primer trazo realizado en la actividad?
12. Reflexiona sobre tus respuestas de las preguntas anteriores y escri
be con tus palabras la definición de Elipse.
13. Solicita a tu coordinador el Anexo 1 para responder lo siguiente.
Explica si el instrumento cumple la definición de elipse y ¿por qué?
Annexos
Hoja de trabajo para la manipulación del antiparalelogramo (van
Schooten)
Nombres de los integrantes del equipo:
Nombre del equipo:
Grado: Institución:
Instrucciones:
1) Se te proporcionará un artefacto, el cual está etiquetado en ciertos

puntos. Así mismo, un lápiz, un pincelín y una regla.
2) El punto E, es la intersección entre los segmentos AD y BC. Este
punto se tomará sobre las deslizaderas, en donde se colocará el lápiz
que previamente se te entregó.
3) Para manipular el artefacto (una vez fijo), tendrás que girarlo a par
tir del punto C y D o bien, sólo debes manejarlo con el lápiz.
4) Observa con atención el artefacto durante el movimiento, principal
mente el lugar geométrico trazado por el punto E.
5) Puedes medir la longitud de los segmentos con la regla para contes
tar algunas de las preguntas que se te piden.
6) Responde las preguntas planteadas lo más detallado posible, ha
ciendo uso del artefacto.
7) Al hacer referencia a un segmento, escríbelo de la siguiente forma.
AB ( )
Antiparalelogramo articulado
de van Schooten
1. ¿De cuántas barras está conformado el artefacto?

2. Mueve el artefacto y observa atentamente lo que ocurre con todos
sus segmentos. Durante el movimiento del artefacto, ¿qué figuras
geométricas forman dichos segmentos (incluyendo los segmentos AC
y BD)?
3. ¿Cuáles son los puntos que están fijos sobre el plano durante el mo
vimiento del artefacto?
4. Al mover el artefacto ¿Cuáles son los segmentos que no cambian de
longitud durante el movimiento?
5. Mueve el artefacto y observa sus segmentos ¿Cuáles son los seg
mentos que cambian de longitud durante el movimiento?
6. De los segmentos que cambiaron de longitud durante el movimien
to, ¿Cuáles segmentos son iguales entre sí?
Ahora deje el artefacto inmóvil de manera que los segmentos AB y CD
no sean paralelos y responda lo siguiente:
7. Trace los segmentos AC y BD. ¿Cuál es la figura que se forma con
los segmentos AC, BD, AB y CD? Menciona algunas de sus carac
terísticas.
8. Lee el anexo1 que se encuentra al final de las hojas.
Observa la figura de la pregunta anterior ¿Tiene algún eje de simetría?
Traza el o los ejes de simetría de dicha figura. ¿Cómo es el eje o los
ejes de simetría respecto a los segmentos AC y BD?
9. Llama punto M a la intersección del eje de simetría con el segmento
AC y N al punto de la intersección del eje de simetría con el segmento
BD. Ahora, compara el triángulo BEN con el triángulo DEN. ¿Cómo
son entre ellos? Justifica tu respuesta.
10. Compara los triángulos MEA y MEC. ¿Cómo son entre ellos?
Justifica tu respuesta.
11. Auxiliándote de las 2 preguntas anteriores, ¿Qué puede decirse de
la comparación entre los triángulos AEB y CED? Justifica tu respuesta.
12. Realiza la suma de los segmentos AE + EB. ¿A cuánto equivale la
suma de AE + EB?, ¿siempre se cumple dicha suma en cualquier posi
ción del artefacto?
13. Mide las distintas barras que conforman el artefacto. ¿Hay alguna
barra del artefacto cuya longitud sea igual a la suma anterior?, ¿cuál es
dicha barra?
14. Reflexiona sobre tus respuestas anteriores y escribe con tus pala
bras que es una Elipse.
15. Solicita a tu coordinador el Anexo 2 para responder lo siguiente.
Explica si el artefacto cumple la definición de Elipse y ¿Por qué?
Eje de simetría
Una línea que atraviesa una fi

gura de tal manera que cada la
do es el espejo del otro. Si
dobláramos la figura en la mitad
a lo largo del Eje de Simetría,
tendríamos que las dos mitades
son iguales, quedarían parejas.
El eje de simetría es la mediatriz
del segmento cuyos extremos
son puntos simétricos.
José Carlos Cortés Zavala es Profesor del área de Matemática

Educativa de la Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hi
dalgo, Morelia, México.
Héctor Arturo Soto Rodríguez es Profesor del área de Matemá

tica Educativa de la Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de
Hidalgo, Morelia, México.
Dirección de contacto: Para correspondencia directa con el autor,

diríjanse a Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo,
Avenida Francisco J. Mújica s/n, Ciudad Universitaria, 58030
Morelia, Michoacán, México. Dirección de Email:
jcortes@fismat.umich.mx
How do elementary preservice teachers form beliefs and

attitudes toward geometry learning? Implications for teacher
preparation programs
Kai-Ju Yang 1
1 ) Indiana University, USA.
To cite this article: Yang, K-J. (201 2). How Do Elementary Preservice
Teachers Form Beliefs and Attitudes Toward Geometry Learning?
Implications for Teacher Preparation Programs. Journal of Research in
Mathematics Education, 1 (2), 1 94-21 3. doi: 1 0.4471 /redimat.201 2.1 0
To link this article: http://dx.doi.org/1 0.4471 /redimat.201 2.1 0
June 2012 pp. 194-213
How Do Elementary
Preservice Teachers Form
Beliefs and Attitudes Toward
Geometry Learning?
Implications for Teacher
Preparation Programs
Kai-Ju Yang
Indiana University
Abstract
In my personal interactions with elementary preservice teachers (EPSTs) at a
large Midwestern university in United States, many EPSTs held negative be-
liefs and attitudes about geometry learning. Although finding ways to help
EPSTs change their negative beliefs and attitudes is an important issue, it can
be best addressed by first investigating how they are formed. This study sought
to document how EPSTs’ beliefs about and attitudes toward geometry were
formed prior to and during a mathematics and pedagogy course at a large Mid-
western university in United States. McLeod’s (1989) theoretical framework of
influencing one’s beliefs and attitudes toward specific action events, and ob-
jects –Representation, Discrepancy, and Metacognition– was used to analyze
data from two interviews with each of four EPSTs. The results of the analysis
confirmed McLeod’s framework but also identified a fourth factor, understan-
ding, as playing an important role in affecting EPST’s beliefs about and attitu-
des toward geometry.
Keywords: beliefs, attitudes, geometry, elementary preservice teachers
2012 Hipatia Press

ISSN 2014-3621
DOI: 10.4471/redimat.2012.10
195 Kai-Ju Yang - Elementary preservice teachers' beliefs and attitudes
I n my personal teaching experiences and interactions with ele-

mentary preservice teachers (EPSTs) at a large Midwestern uni-
versity in United States, I found that many EPSTs held negative
beliefs and attitudes about geometry learning. This negativity concerned
me; if these EPSTs continued to hold these beliefs and attitudes, they
would not be well-prepared to teach geometry to their future students.
Although finding ways to help EPSTs change their negative beliefs and
attitudes is an important issue, it can best be addressed by first investi-
gating how they are formed. The purpose of this study, therefore, explo-
res the origins of EPSTs’ beliefs and attitudes toward geometry learning.
Conceptual framework and reseach questions
Mathematics educators (Lester & Garofalo, 1982; Schoenfeld, 1983 and
1985; Charles & Lester, 1984; McLeod, 1994; Leder, Pehkonen & Tör-
ner, 2002; Maaß & Schlöglmann, 2009) have investigated student be-
liefs about and attitudes toward mathematics and how they influence
students’ mathematics performance. Schoenfeld (1985), having found
that students were not able to make use of the necessary mathematical
knowledge gained from their coursework to solve problems, attributed
this failure not to misunderstanding or forgetting mathematical know-
ledge but rather to not believing that it would be useful to them. The be-
liefs and attitudes that the students held, then, limited their
understanding of mathematics and their ability to solve mathematical
problems. In a similar study, Törner (2001) analyzed students’ ad hoc
answers to mathematical questions and concluded that the mental net of
“knowledge” is dominated by beliefs, raising the question: How did stu-
dents form these negative beliefs about and attitudes?
The formations of one's beliefs and attitudes
McLeod (1989) proposed a theoretical framework for investigating be-
liefs about and attitudes toward specific actions, events, or objects as
they are affected by three factors: representation, discrepancy, and me-
tacognition (see table 1).
Table 1
McLeod's (1989) framework for forming beliefs and attitudes
Beliefs and attitudes
Representation Discrepancy Metacognition
* The format of the * Error: One expects * One reflects on
objects or events de- the action to be co- one's own cognitive
termines one's beliefs rrect but in fact it processes.
and attitudes toward produces unexpec- * So one should be
those particular ob- tedly negative results, aware of one's emo-
jects or events. causing negative be- tional reactions to-
* The order of the liefs and attitudes. ward the things
objects or events de- * Success: One's par- experienced.
termines one's beliefs ticular action produ- * Next, one uses this
and attitudes toward ces unexpectedly awareness to control
those particular ob- positive results, pro- one's cognitive pro-
jects or events. ducing positive be- cesses.
liefs and attitudes. * Then, one rethinks
and possibly changes
one's beliefs and atti-
tudes.
Representation . McLeod argued that representation plays a crucial role
in problem solving, because it influences how students learn, which in
turn affects how they view what they are learning. Representation that
promotes mathematical understanding, therefore, might positively chan-
ge their view of doing math problems (Fennell & Rowan, 2001). The
format of the mathematical concepts and problems (e.g., written state-
ments alone or written statements with pictures) and the order in which
those concepts and problems are presented (e.g., moving from concrete
to abstract concepts) may be assumed to affect students’ beliefs about
and attitudes toward mathematics. In sum, representation may give stu-
dents useful tools for building understanding, communicating informa-
tion, and demonstrating reasoning (Greeno and Hall, 1997; NCTM,
2000).
Yang (2008) investigated the effects of Cognitive Tutor, a math soft-
ware program, on the problem solving behaviors of 12 tenth-grade stu-
dents. The program presented linear algebra word problems with
simultaneous verbal and visual representations that moved from fami-

liar, concrete problem situations (e.g., a truck averages 12 miles per
hour and has already traveled 70 miles. In two more hours, how many
total miles will the truck have traveled?) to more abstract, symbolic
forms (e.g., to write an expression, define a variable for the additional
time traveled and use this variable to write a rule for the total distance
the truck has traveled). The results showed that the combined verbal
and visual representations helped students grasp the target math con-
cept. Students also reported that Cognitive Tutor functioned in the sa-
me way as a human tutor, guiding them step-by-step from the concrete
through the abstract problems to develop their mathematical thinking.
These experiences helped students begin to regard learning mathema-
tics as less difficult than they had previously thought, confirming that
how concepts are presented and organized affects how students think
about mathematics.
Discrepancy. Referring to Mendler’s (1989) work, McLeod stated
that any discrepancy between an expected outcome and the actual out-
come in the course of problem solving in general, and in mathematical
reasoning in particular, affects students’ beliefs and attitudes. Discre-
pancies can be experienced as either errors or successes. An error oc-
curs when students engage in actions that they believe to be correct but
in fact are incorrect, resulting in a mismatch between an expected out-
come (“I thought I did what would solve the problem”) and the reality
(“It didn’t work”). An error can create a negative evaluation of the cu-
rrent situation, which may result in negative beliefs about and attitudes
toward the subjects in general. A success occurs when actions produce
unexpectedly positive results (“I just tried. I am not sure if the method
I used is the correct way to solve the problem. But it works”). This
success is linked to a positive evaluation, which may positively orient
the learners’ beliefs about and attitudes toward the subject.
Metacognition . Schoenfeld (1985) described metacognition as refe-
rring to a cognitive process in which one plans a strategy to solve a
task, monitors the comprehension of task-related knowledge, evaluates
the progress towards the completion of the task, and makes a decision
about whether the strategy is appropriate to apply in performing the
task or he needs to select a new strategy. Brown, Bransford, Ferrara,
and Campione (1983) suggested that metacognition includes two
phases: (a) awareness of one’s own cognitive process, which is the

knowledge of cognition, and (b) use of this awareness to make a deci-
sion, which is the regulation of cognition. In both Schoenfeld’s and
Brown et al.’s views, metacognition is a cognitive activity that leads to
reflection on one’s own thought process in problem solving.
In addition to playing a significant role in students’ success in pro-
blem solving, McLeod argued that metacognition is closely tied to stu-
dents’ beliefs and attitudes. Learning to reflect on their own cognitive
processes, therefore, can not only help students realize how much they
have learned (derived from their successes) as well as how much they
still need to learn (indicated by their errors), but also increase their
awareness of their emotional reactions to learning endeavors. Being
aware of their emotional reactions toward learning mathematics will
give students greater control over their cognitive processes, thus affec-
ting their beliefs about and attitudes toward mathematics.
For example, students who receive low scores on a math quiz ini-
tially feel sad, even angry, and then conclude they cannot learn mathe-
matics, resulting in a negative attitude. But if they can be helped to
understand the relevant mathematics knowledge, they may at least
temporarily suspend their negative reactions and reflect on their errors
in light of this knowledge. Such reflection gives students a sense of
control over their learning and, at the same time, raises their awareness
of their previous negative emotional reactions, so they may begin to
think that mathematics is not as hard as they had believed and develop
more positive attitudes.
Is McLeod’s (1989) theoretical framework for determining beliefs
about and attitudes toward specific actions, events, or objects applica-
ble to elementary preservice teachers’ (EPSTs) experiences with geo-
metry? What other factors might influence their beliefs and attitudes?
Those are the research questions that I would like to study.
Description of four proposed approaches
This study took place in a mathematics and pedagogy course, focusing
on geometry, at a large Midwestern university, in order to investigate
how EPSTs’ beliefs and attitudes toward geometry were formed. Fo-
llowing is an overview of how the instructor introduced the geometry
concept of an Inscribed Circle Within a Triangle (ICWT) through the

four learning approaches: a paper-folding activity, making a construc-
tion with a compass and a straightedge, determining proof, and opera-
ting Geometer’s Sketchpad (GSP), a dynamic geometry software.
Hands-on activity: folding paper
Each EPST was given a white sheet and asked to draw a triangle ABC.
Next, s/he folded the paper by finding the angle bisector of each angle
of triangle ABC. After folding the paper, s/he located the point at
which the three angle bisectors (the three folds) intersected and then
used a compass to draw a circle that just touched each side of triangle
ABC (see figure 1). After completing the activity, the geometry ins-
tructor led a whole-class discussion by asking such questions as “What
is the mathematical name of point P, where the three bisectors inter-
sect? What relationships have you discovered concerning the distance
from point P to each side of triangle ABC?”
Figure 1.Folding angle bisectors from each angle of a triangle to

investigate the inscribed circle within a triangle
Making constructions with a compass and a straightedge
Each EPST was given a blue sheet and asked to draw a triangle ABC.
Next, a compass was used to construct an angle bisector for each angle
of this triangle to produce an intersecting point P where the three angle
bisectors intersected. Then this intersecting point P was used as a cen-
ter to make a circle that touched each side of the triangle ABC (see fi-
gure 2). After the activity, EPSTs were asked, “Do you see any
relationship between the distances from the incenter to each side of the
angle?” By now, many EPSTs were able to understand that the distance
from the incenter to each side of the triangle is the same since it is ac-
tually the radius of the inscribed circle. Next, the EPSTs were asked,
“Can you prove it?”
Constructing angle bisectors for each angle of a triangle with a

Figure 2.
compass and a straightedge to explore the inscribed circle within a
Constructing proof
In the proof activity EPSTs (in pairs or groups) were first given some
time to discuss how to prove that the distance from the incenter (point
P) to each side of the triangle is the same. After 10-15 minutes, geo-
metry instructors led a whole-class discussion to facilitate EPSTs’
thinking by asking several questions, such as, which two triangles
could be used to solve this proof problem? What are the prerequisite
(given corresponding congruent parts) you could find from the two
triangles you have chosen? Based on what condition (SSS, SAS, or
ASA) of triangle congruence, you could say these two triangles were
congruent (see figure 3)? With proof, EPSTs were able to gain a deeper
understanding of what the inscribed circle within a triangle is. More
specifically, they would learn the triangle property that any point at
angle bisector to the sides of the triangle will be the same. Too often,
these two math ideas (inscribed circle within a triangle & property of
angle bisectors) are considered separate concepts. With proof, EPSTs
were able to make the fundamental connections.
Figure 3. Proving that the distance from the incenter to each side of the
triangle is the same
Geometer’s Sketchpad (GSP)
EPSTs also work modeling real life situations such as the shipwreck
survivor problem using GSP, dynamic geometry software (see figure
4), to understand property of angle bisectors. In this problem one needs
to find the place where a survivor could set camp in an island that clo-
sely approximates the shape of a triangle. Specifically, EPSTs (two
EPSTs worked as a pair) were asked to construct an inscribed circle
within a triangle through angle bisectors with GSP. After 10- 15 minu-
tes, geometry instructors led a whole-class discussion to talk about
how to make the construction via GSP. In order to accurately make the
construction, EPSTs need to have good understanding about the inscri-
bed circle within a triangle related to angle bisector property from pre-
vious activities and apply what they have learned. After the construc-
tion with GSP, EPSTs were able to “see” that no matter where and how
they drag the vertex of the triangle, the inscribed circle always touches
each side of the triangle and that the distance from the incenter to each
side of the triangle remains the same (see figure 4). This GSP activity
reconfirmed their understanding about the property of angle bisector as
well as inscribed circle within a triangle. It also allows EPSTs see the
fundamental connections among those representations.
Figure 4. Finding the incenter to solve the shipwreck survivor problem with GSP
Methodology
Data for this study were collected during the Fall 2007 semester in a
mathematics and pedagogy course, focusing on geometry, at a large
Midwestern university. After the Study Information Sheet approved by
the university’s research office had been distributed, four EPSTs vo-
lunteered to participate: John, Karen, Becky, and Carrie (pseudonyms).
The geometry instructor, Mr. Grow (pseudonym), gave lectures every
Monday and Wednesday from 9:30 a.m. to 10:45 a.m. Each EPST par-
ticipated in two interviews, each lasting sixty to ninety minutes.
The first interview questions focused on the EPSTs’ geometry lear-
ning experiences prior to their current geometry-related mathematics
and pedagogy course. Examples of the first interview questions inclu-
ded: When did you learn geometry? What kind of geometry knowledge
had you learned before? How did you learn geometry? Do you think
the ways you learned geometry were effective for you and why? What
did you do when you were learning geometry inside or outside the
classroom? Did you like geometry during or after learning geometry

back then and why?
The second interview questions focused on the EPSTs’ current geo-
metry learning experiences in their geometry-related mathematics and
pedagogy course. Examples of the second interview questions inclu-
ded: What kind of geometry knowledge have you learned from Mr.
Grow’s class? How do you learn geometry from Mr. Grow’s class?
Were the ways of learning geometry from Mr. Grow’s class different
from the ones you had experienced before? Do you think the ways you
learned geometry from Mr. Grow’s class were effective for you and
why?
Questions in the first and second interviews were similar but used
different verb tenses in order to investigate how the EPSTs’ previous
and current geometry learning experiences affected their beliefs and
attitudes toward geometry. The prepared interview questions were used
as guiding questions and then, based on individual responses, the in-
terviewees were asked sub-questions related to their initial answers.
Such now-and-then investigation offered the researcher the opportu-
nity to confirm how the four EPSTs’ beliefs and attitudes toward geo-
metry were formed.
Data analysis and results
Three sets of questions and sub-questions –ways of learning geometry,
geometry performance, and reflection on geometry learning– emerged
as most useful for understanding how the four EPSTs’ beliefs about
and attitudes toward geometry were formed. Table 2 shows those three
interview question sets.
Table 2
Three interview question sets for investigating the origins ofthe four EPSTs' beliefs
and attitudes toward geometry learning
Ways of learning * How did/do you learn geometry? What

geometry did/do you learn about geometry?
* Did/do you think the ways you learned geo-
metry were effective for you and why?
* Did/do you like geometry after taking the
course?
* Did/do you think your beliefs and attitudes

toward geometry were influenced positively or
negatively by the ways oflearning geometry?
Geometry * Did/do you have any geometry homework?
performance * How was/is your homework performance?
How about the midterm or final exam?
* Did/do those performance influence what
you think about geometry?
Reflection on * During the class, did/does the instructor
geometry learning help you reflect on what you have learned and
what you have missed?
* After the instructor has returned homework
or an exam, did/does the instructor help you
reflect on what you have learned and what
you have missed?
Ways of learning geometry
During the first interview, all EPSTs mentioned that they first expe-
rienced geometry when they were elementary school students. Alt-
hough geometry was not a specific subject, they learned basic
geometric shapes and their characteristics, such as the four equal sides
of a square. In the ninth or tenth grade, they took courses on geometry
concepts, relationships, and operations such as the properties of para-
llel lines, their relationship to angles, and calculation of the areas of
geometric shapes, making basic constructions with a compass and de-
termining proofs. Most instruction was teacher-and textbook-centered
with students listening to lectures and observing projected or written
demonstrations, followed by worksheets and textbook assignments, but
with little group interaction, whole-class discussion, or opportunity to
explore the concepts being taught. The EPSTs regarded this approach
as an ineffective way for them to learn geometry, which they came to
believe it was too abstract and difficult to understand, leading to nega-
tive attitudes toward the subject. Becky said:
…When he [the geometry instructor] taught the criteria for con-

gruent triangles, he used an overhead projector to give us lectu-
res about triangle congruence. He selected a question from the
textbook to demonstrate how to prove it. After he taught the
lesson, he gave us a worksheet to practice it until he thought that
we had grasped the concept…. No, I don’t think it [the way of
learning geometry] was effective because I did not connect the
concept and questions very well. I mean I understand the con-
cept but I don’t know how to apply these concepts to ques-
tions…. I did not get much understanding from that class. I hate
geometry.
During the second interview, the EPSTs explained that the geometry
concepts they learned from Mr. Grow in current mathematics and
pedagogy course were similar to those they had learned in high school,
so they were relearning but in ways that helped them understand the
concepts better. They felt that learning geometry concepts through the
four approaches in a sequence moving from the easiest one (folding
paper) to the more complicated ones (determining proof or using
GSP), helped them develop a deeper understanding of geometry a step
at a time. These positive experiences encouraged them to rethink their
ideas about geometry. Again, Becky said:
…In Mr. Grow’s class, we used different ways to learn a geo-

metry concept and I especially like hands-on activity because I
am experiencing the concept. I am actually learning by doing
it.... Yes, I think it [the way of learning geometry] was effective
because I am able to practice the concept by myself, not wat-
ching or listening to [an explanation of] the concept from the
instructor. Mr. Grow introduced the concept by engaging us in
an activity that we can “see” or “touch” the concept and later he
helped us generalize the concept in a mathematical term…. I
think I engaged in Mr. Grow’s class more, compared to my pre-
vious geometry learning experiences. Mr. Grow made me feel
geometry learning is easier.
This question set, ways oflearning geometry, was related to the role of
representations in affecting EPSTs’ beliefs and attitudes toward geo-
metry. The results of both interviews showed that the way of presen-
ting geometry concepts strongly affected how EPSTs formed their
beliefs and attitudes. Specifically, EPSTs’ beliefs and attitudes about
geometry were influenced by the format of how the geometry concepts
were presented, for example, in written or diagram form only (EPSTs’
previous geometry learning) or in a combination of visual presentation
and interactive experiences (EPSTs’ current geometry learning).
EPSTs’ beliefs and attitudes were also influenced by the order in
which approaches were presented. In Mr. Grow’s class, EPSTs first
experienced geometry concepts by performing operations and then la-
ter Mr. Grow helped them make generalizations about the concepts. In
this way, EPSTs’ learning progressed from concrete examples to abs-
tract ideas. This result confirmed McLeod’s (1989) position that repre-
sentation strongly affects the formation of one’s beliefs and attitudes
toward specific actions, events, or objects.
Ways of learning geometry
During the first interview, the EPSTs mentioned that in high school,
their geometry instructors assigned them homework consisting of ap-
proximately 20 questions selected from the textbook, mostly short,
discrete questions such as definitions or area calculations and a few
more complex questions such as proof or construction problems. Be-
cause they did not have a good understanding of what was taught in
class, they sometimes had to ask a tutor or their parents for help. Alt-
hough they felt they had tried to prepare themselves to the best of their
ability, their performance on the geometry tests often did not meet their
expectations, which made them dislike geometry. Carrie said:
…Doing homework was not an easy job for me. I had to hire a
tutor to re-teach me in order to finish the assignment because I
did not understand geometry at all in the class…. When the
midterm was approaching, I needed to meet with my tutor seve-
ral times to go over the geometry concepts that were needed for
doing the midterm…. Even though I spent so much time at pre-
paring for the midterm, the midterm results I got were very disa-
ppointing. I was very frustrated. I felt that I made a lot of effort

to prepare for the exam but the results were not very good…. I
did not like geometry before I took the midterm. But after the
midterm result came back, I just disliked geometry more.
During the second interview, the EPSTs explained that answers for the
approximately 10 homework questions Mr. Grow gave them every
week could not be found in the textbooks or on worksheets but requi-
red students to comprehend what was taught and consult their class
notes. None needed to hire a tutor because Mr. Grow’s four learning
approaches, especially the folding activity, helped them grasp the geo-
metry concepts. To prepare for their midterm, they studied the text-
book and reviewed their homework, hand-outs, and in-class practice
with problems or other activities. They even searched for websites
with information about the geometry concepts being taught in order to
better understand them. Overall, they felt well-prepared for the mid-
term and thought they had performed well on it, at least, according to
their own criteria. Again, Carrie said:
…Now there is no need for me to hire a tutor for my geometry
class. Mr. Grow helped me gain a deeper understanding about
geometry by actually “doing” the concept…. I used the notes,
textbook, homework, or worksheets to prepare the midterm….
When I received my midterm I was happy with that…. That
makes me realize that “Wow! Actually I can do well in geo-
metry”.
This question set, geometry performance, was associated with the role
of discrepancy in affecting EPSTs’ beliefs and attitudes. The results of
both interviews revealed the effects of discrepancy between expected
actual and performance on exams. In high school, because they had put
a lot of effort into preparing for geometry exams, they believed they
would perform well, but, in fact, they didn’t, resulting in negative be-
liefs and attitudes. This finding resonates with McLeod’s (1989) error
discrepancy, a mismatch between an expected outcome and the actual
outcome resulting in negative beliefs and attitudes. Because of their
previous geometry learning experiences, the EPSTs thought they might
not be able to perform well on Mr. Grow’s geometry midterm although

they continued to practice the geometry concepts. In reality, the results
showed that they were able to do well in geometry. This discrepancy
led to more positive beliefs and attitudes, which, resonates with
McLeod’s (1989) success discrepancy, when particular actions or
thoughts produce unexpectedly positive results. In short, both geo-
metry learning experiences confirm McLeod’s (1989) beliefs and atti-
tudes framework.
Reflection on geometry learning
The EPSTs recalled that in high school they spent little time reflecting
on their geometry test results to assess what they had learned and what
they needed to learn. The instructors just checked the correct answers
with them to make sure that the grade was accurate, leaving them di-
sappointed and with negative feelings about geometry learning.
Compared to their previous geometry learning experiences, the par-
ticipants in this study commented that Mr. Grow spent more time
going over geometry concepts, especially when they received back ho-
mework assignments, quizzes, major exams. This process helped them
realize which parts of the concepts they had mastered and which parts
they still needed to work on. Although when they first saw low grades
they might feel frustrated and averse to geometry, Mr. Grow’s guidan-
ce helped them understand the nature of their mistakes and reconsider
their initial emotional reactions toward geometry, which they could
change by paying closer attention to problems and, with their instruc-
tor’s help, improving their comprehension of target concepts. This
greater sense of control, in turn, motivated them to study geometry
harder and rethink their initial perceptions of geometry. Karen said:
…Sometimes it [geometry performance results] did bother me
and made me so frustrated when I saw the grade… I even
thought to quit learning geometry because I thought I unders-
tand the concepts and I should get a good grade, better than the
one I received…. When Mr. Grow explained the questions, I
realized that I did not think though the concepts completely. I
did not grasp the concepts totally…. I realized there was no
need for me to feel frustrated. Instead, I should study geo-
metry harder so I will not miss the points next time when I see
the similar questions.
This question set, reflection on geometry learning, was linked to the
role of metacognition in affecting EPSTs’ beliefs about and attitudes
toward geometry. The results of both interviews indicated that meta-
cognition –a cognitive process which helps EPSTs think about their
own thinking and be aware of their emotional reactions to a subject–
strongly affects how EPSTs form their beliefs and attitudes. Specifi-
cally, Mr. Grow helped these EPSTs reflect on what they knew and
what they still needed to master, overcome negative emotions, and ac-
quire a sense of control, which positively affected how they viewed
themselves as learners of mathematics. This reflection process con-
firms McLeod’s (1989) theoretical claim that metacognition plays a
significant role in formation of one’s beliefs and attitudes.
Another important insight derived from analysis of the interview data
is that another factor, understanding, is important in affecting the for-
mation of the EPSTs’ beliefs and attitudes toward geometry, as reflec-
ted in the following statements:
…I know that Mr. Grow used different ways to help us unders-
tand geometry concepts…. I think the way Mr. Grow taught
geometry is more influential for me in learning geometry. He
made geometry simple and I understand more. (John)
… Mr. Grow made me think about geometry from different
ways such as hands-on activity, constructions, or proof. Those
ways helped me master geometry concepts. Now I understand
geometry more compared to previous geometry learning…. I
enjoyed learning geometry. (Karen)
… Basically, I used geometry performance to tell how much I
have learned. If my geometry performance is good, that means I
understand more, then my beliefs and attitudes about geometry
will be more positive. But if I get low geometry performance,
that means I understand less, then my beliefs and attitudes about
geometry will be negative. (Carrie)
… The four geometry learning approaches helped me unders-

tand geometry concepts, hands-on activity particularly… Alt-
hough I still don’t like geometry, at least I don’t dislike it that
much. (Becky)
From these statements, it suggested that Mr. Grow’s use of four lear-
ning approaches, including a paper-folding activity, making a cons-
truction with a compass and a straightedge, determining proof, and
operating Geometer’s Sketchpad (GSP), a dynamic geometry software,
provided more learning opportunities for EPSTs in exploring the geo-
metry concepts being taught, and the better understanding that resulted
was an important link in the chain leading to the participants’ develop-
ment of more positive beliefs about mathematical learning and their
attitude toward geometry learning as a subject to be both learned and
taught.
Conclusions and discussion
In this study, I explored how EPSTs both formed their beliefs about
and attitudes toward geometry by analyzing data from two interviews
as different points in the learning period. This analysis revealed the
strong influences of (1) the format and the order of presenting geo-
metry concepts, (2) mismatches between expected and actual perfor-
mance on the geometry midterm, and (3) reflection leading to self
assessment of learning and awareness of emotional reactions to geo-
metry, confirming McLeod’s (1989) beliefs and attitudes framework
explicating the roles of representation, discrepancy, and metacognition.
In addition, the analysis identified understanding as another important
factor affecting beliefs and attitudes (see table 3).
If in fact we can understand how EPSTs beliefs about and attitudes
toward learning geometry are formed, we will be able to find out ways
to help EPSTs change negative orientations, which can have positive
implications for designing mathematics and pedagogy courses for
EPSTs that will better prepare them to be effective mathematics tea-
chers.
Table 3
Results confirming McLeod’s (1989) framework for forming beliefs and attitudes th-
rough representation, discrepancy, and metacognition and the emergence ofa fourth
factor: understanding
Beliefs and attitudes
Representation Discrepancy Metacognition Understand
* The format of * Error: One * One reflects * One learns
the objects or expects the ac- on one's own about the ob-
events determi- tion to be co- cognitive projects, events, or
nes one's beliefs rrect but in fact cesses. persons from
and attitudes to- it produces * So one should multiple pers-
ward those par- unexpectedly be aware of pectives.
ticular objects or negative results, one's emotional * One masters
events. causing negative reactions toward the ideas about
* The order of beliefs and atti- the things expe- the objects,
the objects or tudes. rienced. events, or per-
events determi- * Success: One's * Next, one uses sons.
nes one's beliefs particular action this awareness * One, then, in-
and attitudes to- produces unex- to control one's creases the level
ward those par- pectedly positi- cognitive proof understan-
ticular objects or ve results, cesses. ding of the ob-
events. producing posi- * Then, one ret- jects, events, or
tive beliefs and hinks and pos- persons.
attitudes. sibly changes * Thus, one ret-
one's beliefs and hinks previous
attitudes. beliefs and atti-
tudes or forms
new ones.
Toward this end, further inquiry might investigate how each of the dif-
ferent instructional approaches affected EPSTs’ beliefs and attitudes as
well as the cumulative effects of the four approaches in the sequence in
which they were taught. Similarly, further research could pursue dee-
per understanding of the roles that representation, discrepancy, meta-
cognition, and understanding play in changing EPSTs’ beliefs about
and attitudes toward geometry learning.
References
Brown, A.L., Bransford, J.D., Ferrara, R.A., & Campione, J.C. (1983).
Learning, remembering, and understanding. In J. Flavell & E.
Markman (Eds.), Mussen’s handbook ofchild psychology (Vol. 3,
pp.77-166). Somerset, NJ: Wiley
Charles, R. I., & Lester, F. K., Jr. (1984). An evaluation of a process-
oriented instructional program in mathematical problem solving in
grades 5 and 7. Journals for Research in Mathematics Education,
15, 15-34
Fennell, F., & Rowan, T. (2001). Representation: An important process
for teaching and learning mathematics. Teaching Children Mathe-
matics, 5, 288-292
Greeno, J. G., & Hall, R. B. (1997). Practicing representation: Lear-
ning with and about representation forms. Phi Delta Kappan, 79,
361-367
Leder, G. C., Pehkonen, E., & Törner, G. (2002). Beliefs: A hidden va-
riable in mathematics education? Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic
Publishers.
Lester, F., & Garofalo, J. (1982). Metacognitive aspects ofelementary
school students’ performance on arithmetic tasks. Paper presented
at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research As-
sociation, New York.
Maaß, J. & Schlöglmann, W. (2009). Beliefs and attitudes in mathe-
matics education: New research results. Rotterdam/ Taipei: Sense
Publishers.
Mandler, G. (1989). Affect and learning: Causes and consequences of
emotional interactions. In D. B. McLeod & V.M. Adams (Eds.),
Affect and mathematical problem solving: A new perspective
(pp.3-19), NY: Springer-Verlag.
McLeod, D. B. (1989). The role of affect in mathematical problem
solving. In D.B. McLeod & V.M. Adams (Eds.), Affect and mat-
hematical problem solving: A new perspective (pp.20-36), NY:
Springer-Verlag.
McLeod, D. B. (1994). Research on affect and mathematics learning in
the JRME: 1970 to the present. Journal for Research in Mathe-
matics Education, 25(6), 637–647
National Council ofTeachers of Mathematics (2000). Principle and

Standards for School Mathematics. Reston, VA.
Schoenfeld, A.H. (1983). Beyond the purely cognitive: Belief system,
social cognitions, and metacognitions as driving forces in inte-
llectual performance. Cognitive Science, 7, 329-363
Schoenfeld, A.H. (1985). Mathematical problem solving. Orlando, FL:
Academic press.
Törner, G. (2001). Mentale Repräsentationen –der Zusammenhang
zwischen ‘Subject-Matter Knowledge’und ‘Pedagogical Content
Knowledge’– dargestellt am Beispiel der Exponentialfunktionen
in einer Fallstudie mit Lehramtsstudenten. In G. Kaiser (Ed.),
Beiträge zum Mathematikunterricht (pp. 628–631). Hildesheim:
Franzbecker.
Yang, K. (2008). Learning oflinear algebra word concepts by using
cognitive tutor software: An implication for in-service teachers.
Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Informa-
tion Technology & Teacher Education Conference, Las Vegas,
Nevada.
Kai-Ju Yang is doctoral candidate in Curriculum Studies (Mathe-

matics focus), at Indiana University, USA.
should be addressed to the author at: 1179, Cooper River Drive,
San Jose, CA, 95126, USA. E-mail address: kayang@indiana.edu.
Crossroads in the History of Mathematics and Mathematics

Education.
Joan Cabré1
1) Universitat Rovira i Virgili, España.
Date of publication: June 24th, 2012
To cite this article: Cabré, J. (2012). Crossroads in the History of

Mathematics and Mathematics Education. REDIMAT Journal of Research
in Mathematics Education, 1 (2), 214218. doi: 10.4471/redimat.2012.11
To link this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.4471/redimat.2012.11
The terms and conditions of use are related to the Open Journal System and to
Creative Commons NonCommercial and NonDerivative License.
June 2012 pp. 214218.
Review
Sriraman, B. (Ed.) (2012). Crossroads in the History of Mathematics

and Mathematics Education. The Montana Mathematics Enthusiast.
Monograph series in Mathematics Education. Charlotte, NC:
Information Age Publishing.
El uso de la historia de la matemática como recurso didáctico no es

nuevo. Existen varios trabajos muy interesantes que nos recuerdan cada
día las estrechas conexiones entre el desarrollo de las ideas matemáticas,
y su enseñanza. En este libro Bharath Sriramann recopila trabajos que
nos llevan desde el teorema fundamental del cálculo, hasta el libro de
los sólidos regulares de Euclides, pasando por la aportaciones
matemáticas procedentes del antiguo Egipto. La interacción entre la
historia de la matemáticas y la educación matemática viene ya de lejos.
Me vienen a la memoria libros fundamentales como la historia de la
matemática de Boyer, o la de Collette, o los trabajos clásicos ya de
Kline, por solo citar algunas obras que me han marcado. Gratos
recuerdos.
Este libro se presenta como un recurso para estudiantes de grado, tanto
de futuros matemáticos, como de futuros maestros y maestras de
matemáticas. A lo largo de sus páginas, los diferentes autores aportan
reflexiones interesantes en base a episodios y conceptos que forman
parte del conocimiento matemático que hemos ido acumulando a través
de los siglos.
El libro se organiza en tres partes bien diferenciadas: historia y
2012 Hipatia Press

ISSN 20143621
DOI: 10.4471/redimat.2012.11
215 Joan Cabré Crossroads in the History of Mathematics
didáctica del cálculo, por un lado; de la geometría y la numeración, por

otro; y finalmente el papel que juega la historia de la matemática en la
matemática educativa.
El primer bloque comienza con un capítulo de Eva Jablonka y Anna
Klisinska. Las autoras usan la referencia al teorema fundamental del
cálculo para discutir sobre la institucionalización del conocimiento
matemático. A través de entrevistas a once matemáticos, repasan el
desarrollo histórico de este concepto. El cálculo, que en todo el mundo
se ha convertido virtualmente en al piedra de toque que da entrada, o
no, a los estudios superiores de las diversas ingenierías, hunde sus
raíces históricamente en la Grecia antigua de Eudoxo o Arquímedes,
utilizando un método que mucho más tarde, en el siglo XVII Gregoire
de St. Vicent bautizaría como el método de la exhausción. Este
“cálculo” nada tiene que ver con el concepto de “cálculo” que procede
de los trabajos de Newton sobre las fluxiones, y de Leibniz y las
integrales, cuando trataron de someter el infinito a sus algoritmos de
cálculo. Los trabajos posteriores de Cauchy, las “sumas de Riemann”, o
las presentaciones de l’Hospital y Johan Bernouilli han ido poco a poco
definiendo lo que hoy en día conocemos como “cálculo”, esa disciplina
fundamental de toda disciplina técnica. Las respuestas de los once
matemáticos a las preguntas de las autoras sobre las diferentes
versiones del teorema fundamental del cálculo, no dejan de ser
interesantes y llaman la atención sobre la importancia de la
recontextualización de un conocimiento matemático como el cálculo,
que ha ido superando “obstáculos epistemológicos” a medida que iba
pasando de un enfoque geométrico al enfoque algebraico que le dieron
los matemáticos del siglo XVIII.
Nicolas Haverhals y Matt Roscoe continúan en el ámbito del cálculo.
Su capítulo relata la transición de los estudiantes al cálculo usando la
historia como libro de ruta. La primera frase que leemos nos remite a la
asignatura de “Precálculo.” A lo largo de las siguientes páginas, los
autores analizan el trayecto histórico que ha conducido a conceptos
como la definición del límite de la derivada, o el estudio del cálculo
diferencial e integral. Se presentan los métodos históricos para
encontrar la pendiente de la recta tangente a una función en un punto
desarrollados por Descartes y Hudde, Fermat y Barrow.
Tras el capítulo de Mikhail Katz y David Tall sobre la tensión entre

los infinitesimales intuitivos, y el análisis matemático formal, y el
capítulo de Brating, Kallem y Sriraman sobre la naturaleza didáctica de
algunos ejemplos históricos poco conocidos de la historia de la
matemática, en el ámbito del cálculo infinitesimal, Jeff Babb y James
Currie usan el problema de la curva braquistócrona, también conocida
como “curva del descenso más rápido” para reflexionar sobre la
contextualización de los problemas matemáticos, a fin de acercarlos a
una audiencia más amplia. El problema de la curva braquistócrona es
uno de los problemas más antiguos del cálculo de variaciones.
Matemáticos como Leibniz, L’Hospital, Newton, o Jakob y Johann
Bernoulli encontraron la solución (que es un segmento de la cicloide).
Los retos entre Leibniz y Newton, y las disputas entre los hermanos
Bernoulli, sirven a los autores para contextualizar el concepto de una
curva tal que la formada por una partícula que cae deslizándose por
ella, de un punto a otro situado debajo del primero, pero sin que esté en
la vertical, en el mínimo tiempo posible.
Tras una incursión en el terreno de los logaritmos de la mano de
Rafael VillarrealCalderon, que discute sobre los usos históricos que
han tenido esas herramientas matemáticas, Nicolas Haverhals y Matt
Rocoe cierran esta primera parte dedicada al cálculo con una referencia
a la proyección de Mercator como herramienta para enseñar la integral
de una recta secante. Mercator, cuyo verdadero nombre (no latinizado)
era Kaufmann, trabajó en el cálculo de series infinitas, usando un
método de cuadraturas igual que hacía Gregory, con el que obtiene
resultados análogos a los que Newton ya había obtenido Newton en De
analysi con el desarrollo binomial infinito, pero que no había
publicado.
El siguiente bloque de contenidos, sobre la historia de la geometría y
su impacto en la enseñanza de las matemáticas, comienza, como no,
con una referencia clara a Euclides, el autor del manual de matemáticas
más antiguo que se conserva, y el libro más editado de la historia,
después de la Biblia. Michael N. Fried discute el valor educativo del
libro de los sólidos regulares. El libro XI de Los elementos es el que
contiene las proposiciones relativas a la geometría tridimensional. Aquí
es donde encontramos definiciones familiares para todos los que hemos
estudiado matemáticas en la escuela, como que un sólido es lo que
217 Joan Cabré Crossroads in the History of Mathematics
tiene “longitud, anchura y profundidad.” Michael Fried, en este

capítulo, se concentra en el libro XIII de Los elementos, donde
Euclides escribe sobre los cinco poliedros regulares, los conocidos
como “sólidos platónicos”, y que el matemático griego se esforzó en
inscribir en sendas esferas. A través de sus comentarios, Freid nos
ofrece elementos de reflexión para conectar nuestras clases de
geometría con un referente clásico como es el trabajo de Euclides, que
ha sido y es maestro de tantas y tantas personas a lo largo de las
generaciones.
Siguiendo con el estudio de la obra euclidiana, a continuación Jade
Roskam centra su trabajo en el libro X de Los elementos. Este libro está
dedicado, como es harto conocido, a los “inconmensurables”, que hoy
en día denominamos como números irracionales. Euclides consideraba
este libro como una parte de la geometría, y no tanto de la aritmética
(como cabría esperar hoy), y de hecho, las proposiciones 2 y 3 son
indudablemente de interpretación geométrica. Roskam nos lleva a un
viaje que ilumina con claridad la obra de este clásico de la matemática,
para beneficio de las personas que nos dedicamos a la enseñanza.
A continuación Mark Beintema y Azar Khosravani se trasladan al
origen del concepto de género, tan usado en la topología para referirnos
a la invarianza de los objetos. Estos autores nos invitan a visitar el
trabajo de Gauss, el llamado “príncipe de las matemáticas”, y su teoría
sobre las formas cuadráticas binarias. A lo largo de las páginas de su
capítulo, estos dos autores repasan el desarrollo histórico de las
expresiones cuadráticas binarias del tipo f(x,y)=ax2+bxy+cy2 desde la
formulación de Gauss en Disquisitiones Arithmeticae, hasta las
aportaciones de Euler, Legendre o Lagrange.
Este bloque de contenidos se cierra con un capítulo de Gabriel
Johnson, Bharath Sriraman y Rachel Saltzstein sobre las matemáticas
del antiguo Egipto. Tal y como dicen, la mayor parte de las
matemáticas que enseñamos hoy en día en las escuelas ya se inventaron
en el mundo antiguo. Este hecho abre la posibilidad de enfocar el
currículum desde un punto de vista sociocrítico e histórico. En este
capítulo, los autores retroceden hasta los tiempos del antiguo Egipto,
donde encuentran las raíces de un modelo semítico de la matemática
actual, frente a la tesis que defiende el anclaje en la Grecia clásica el
origen de las matemáticas occidentales. A través de los ojos de

personajes históricos como Heródoto, John Greaves, Napoleón
Bonaparte, y otros “visitantes” que “descubrieron” las grandes
pirámides, los autores van reconstruyendo el significado matemático de
esta antigua cultura, y su legado en nuestro tiempo.
El último bloque temático del libro está dedicado al análisis de la
historia de las matemáticas en la educación matemática. El primero de
los capítulos que compone esta parte, escrito por Constantinos
Tzanakis y Yannis Thomaidis, habla sobre la clasificación de
argumentos y los esquemas metodológicos que proponen ambos
autores para integrar la historia en la educación matemática. Con ellos
aprendemos que las matemáticas, que se nos presentan en un formato
tan pulido, formalmente impecable, deductivo, son resultado de
procesos más humanos, desordenados, de confrontación de ideas, de
avances y retrocesos constantes. Tal y como afirman los autores, no es
hasta que una idea o una teoría alcanza un cierto grado de madurez, que
se formaliza. Por tanto, la historia de las matemáticas aparece como un
recurso didáctico para comprender de dónde salen las ideas y las
nociones matemáticas que pueblan nuestros libros de texto en las
escuelas.
A continuación Uffe Thomas Jankvist nos presenta un capítulo en el
que intenta identificar y clasificar estudios empíricos en el ámbito de la
historia y la educación matemática. A lo largo de estas páginas el autor
danés revisa el papel de la historia [matemática] en la enseñanza y el
aprendizaje de las matemáticas. El capítulo que le sigue, escrito por
Tinne Hoff Kjeldsen, analiza los beneficios de usar la historia de esta
manera. Para ello recurre a dos ejemplos concretos del trabajo de los
estudiantes, en un instituto de bachillerato.
El libro concluye con un trabajo de Shirley B. Gray y Libby Knott el
progreso en el siglo XVII, de las matemáticas. Con este capítulo se
cierra el libro, pero se abre un amplio espectro de preguntas
interesantes, y motivos de reflexión, para incorporar la historia de las
matemáticas en nuestra práctica docente como maestros y maestras.
Joan Cabré, Universitat Rovira i Virgili

joan.cabreo@estudiants.urv.cat

302-Anonymous Manuscript - 1055-1-10-20120701

Cargado por

Información del documento

Título original

Derechos de autor

Formatos disponibles

Compartir este documento

Compartir o incrustar documentos

Opciones para compartir

¿Le pareció útil este documento?

¿Este contenido es inapropiado?

Copyright:

Formatos disponibles

302-Anonymous Manuscript - 1055-1-10-20120701

Cargado por

Copyright:

Formatos disponibles

Instructions for authors, subscriptions and further details:

1 ) Departamento de Didáctica de las Ciencias Experimentales y las

Date of publication: June 24th, 201 2

To cite this article: Díez-Palomar, J. (201 2). Editorial. Journal of

To link this article: http://dx.doi.org/1 0.4471 /redimat.201 2.06

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

E s un placer introducir el segundo número del primer volumen

2012 Hipatia Press

Un artículo es válido en la medida que aporta evidencias sólidas sobre las

dejó tras de sí importantes contribuciones a las matemáticas y al conoci-

sustentan sobre la red virtual, que nos permiten comunicarnos a veloci-

el desarrollo de la autonomía; y también evidencian otras que no por in-

Una vez establecido el marco de análisis, Yang presenta las actividades

González Urbaneja, M. (2008). El teorema llamado de Pitágoras. Una

“Nobody Can Sit There”: Two Perspectives on how Mathematics

1 ) Department of Curriculum and Teaching, Boston University.

Date of publication: June 24th, 201 2

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

“Nobody Can Sit There”:

2012 Hipatia Press

S olving mathematics story problems set in an imaginary context

(Wertsch, 1991, 1998) from cultural historical activity theory. Then a

Numerous mathematics education researchers who use a semiotic

mathematics problems. However, this choice was necessary in order to

mathematics (Boaler, 1993; Brenner, 1998; Civil, 2002; Civil &

using the intended mathematical algorithm. Both Gerofsky (1996) and

and slope of linear functions through engaging in small group

Figure 1. Timeline of data collection

The Setting and Study Design

were either born in the United States but grew up in Spanish-speaking

context, either implicitly or explicitly. All references that the students

The Mediation of the Problem Context in Discussions

used the words “somebody” and “nobody” to reason about this

How the students used "somebody" and "nobody" in relation to the

1. Mateo It’s gonna be eighteen ((referring to row 4 of the

1. Mateo You just add four to all of them

affordance was that by imagining students sitting at a desk, they were

1. Jaime ((reading the problem)) One day tom the tortoise

2001; Martiniello, 2008). Conversely, Abedi and Martiniello’s research

cannot be considered without also considering the meditational means

particular solution methods, and the problem context was secondary to

Fendel, D., Resek, D., & Alper, L. (1996). Interactive Mathematics

National Council ofTeachers of Mathematics (2000). Principles and

Wertsch, J. V. (1991). Voices of the mind: A sociocultural approach to

2. Imagine that 100 of the hexagon desks were pushed together in a

The Tortoise and the Hare

1. Who was running faster at t = 2 seconds? How do you know?

William Zahner is Associated professor at the Department of

Mathematics Teacher Continuing Education: Fostering the

1 ) Universidade Bandeirante de São Paulo.

Date of publication: June 24th, 201 2

To link this article: http://dx.doi.org/1 0.4471 /redimat.201 2.08

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

2012 Hipatia Press

T he paradigm for the 21st-century society brings the need to

teacher face the challenge to help build quality teaching in public

Professional Development and Collaborative Work

development and (C15) Reflection on action.

classroom daily activities. They point out that establishing partnerships

The project is under development and extends for four years,

Code Category Description

C1 – Shared reflection The meetings in which we did practical

In these two logs we notice that mastering the mathematical content is

El propósito de éste articulo, es dar a conocer los resultados de una investiga

(18211894), Harry Hart (18481920), William Kingdon Clifford (1845

registros semióticos de representación, en este caso el gráfico y el al

Figuras 1 y 2 . Elipsógrafo de palancas y colisa de Inwards construcción física y construc

Ahora tenemos todo lo necesario para afirmar que ∆BEN es congruen

De las dos congruencias anteriores obtenemos que el ∆AEB es con

Los resultados que se muestran a continuación corresponden a las pre