Abstract
This chapter discusses the production and use of mathematical notations by elementary school students, and the ways children make sense of symbols and physical devices designed for instruction. I summarize a couple of my own investigations on children’s representational activity, focusing on the microgenesis of number tables built on paper. The analyses show: (1) the evolving and shifting nature of meanings and inscriptions in a representation; (2) how children’s representational competence interacts with the social and material circumstances of a specific setting; (3) how the contents of a representation affords certain goals to emerge while weakening the emergence of others; and (4) the function of representations as a material basis for mathematical activity. From a theoretical point of view, this research springs from the framework of a sociocultural, activity-oriented view on children’s learning and thinking, focusing on the interrelationship among mediated action, signs and meanings.
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De Lenos Meira, L.R. (2002). Mathematical Representations as Systems of Notations-In-Use. In: Gravemeijer, K., Lehrer, R., Van Oers, B., Verschaffel, L. (eds) Symbolizing, Modeling and Tool Use in Mathematics Education. Mathematics Education Library, vol 30. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-3194-2_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-3194-2_6
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