Multimodal Production of Signs in the Appropriation of Relations Between a Function and Its Derivative (original) (raw)
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Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education
This study's focus was twofold , first to look at forms of gestures teachers of multilingual mathematics classes use during teaching; and second to find out how teachers of multilingual mathematics classes utilize learners' home language, language of learning and teaching and gestures to foster understanding in the teaching of mathematics. This qualitative case study is informed by the embodied cognition theory and social constructivism. Two purposively selected Grade 11 teachers were observed and video recorded while teaching trigonometry for a week in a multilingual policy environment. They were each interviewed for an hour. Results shows that iconic and deictic gestures were frequently used to link the teacher's verbal language and the diagrams on the chalkboard or what was previously learnt, to ground cognition into the physical teaching and learning environment. Metaphoric gestures were less used while beat gestures were not used. Results also show that there exists an intricate semiotic and symbiotic relationship between gestures (bodily actions), and spoken language (in two or more languages in the same environment). In this paper, I conclude that in multilingual classes all forms of teacher gestures that indicate and refers to objects and locations in reality may help improve learning. Gestures and verbal languages complement each other, and should be used as resources for mediating and scaffolding teaching and learning.
Calculators, graphs, gestures and the production of meaning
2003
In this paper we report an analysis of a teaching sequence in which Grade 11 students were asked to produce some graphs corresponding to the relationship between time and distance of a cylinder moving up and down an inclined plane. The students were also asked to carry out the experience using a TI 83+ graphic calculator equipped with a sensor, and to discuss and explain the differences between their own graphs and the ones obtained with the calculator. We analyze the students' processes of meaning production in terms of the way diverse semiotic resources such as gestures, graphs, words and artifacts become interwoven during the mathematical activity. Our findings suggest that a complex relationship between gestures and words allow the students to make sense of the time-space graphic expressions.
International Group for the Psychology of M athematics …, 2005
We shall summarize some findings of two studies (Bartolini et al., 1999; Bartolini et al. in press) concerning primary school. In the former we have studied the genesis of a germ theory of the functioning of gears. In the latter we have studied the construction of the meaning of painting as the intersection between the picture plane and the visual pyramid. The studies have been carried out in a Vygotskian framework that has been gradually enriched with contributions of other authors. As a result, classroom activity has been designed and orchestrated by the teacher in order to foster the parallel development of different semiotic means (language, gestures, drawing), which form a dynamic system (Stetsenko, 1995).
Calculators, graphs, gestures, and the production meaning
In N., Pateman, B. Dougherty and J. Zilliox (eds.), Proceedings of the 27 Conference of the international group for the psychology of mathematics education (PME27 –PMENA25), Vol. 4, pp. 55-62., 2003
In this paper we report an analysis of a teaching sequence in which Grade 11 students were asked to produce some graphs corresponding to the relationship between time and distance of a cylinder moving up and down an inclined plane. The students were also asked to carry out the experience using a TI 83+ graphic calculator equipped with a sensor, and to discuss and explain the differences between their own graphs and the ones obtained with the calculator. We analyze the students' processes of meaning production in terms of the way diverse semiotic resources such as gestures, graphs, words and artifacts become interwoven during the mathematical activity. Our findings suggest that a complex relationship between gestures and words allow the students to make sense of the time-space graphic expressions.
Gesture as data for a phenomenographic analysis of mathematical conceptions
2013
This paper reports on a phenomenographic investigation for which both participant utterances and their gestures were analysed in order for researchers to gain insight into their understanding of the concept of rate. Video-recordings were made of twenty interviews with Year 10 students. Detailed analysis, of both the sound and images, illuminated the meaning of rate-related gestures. Findings indicate that students often use the symbols and metaphors of gesture to complement, supplement or even contradict verbal descriptions. This study demonstrates, in one setting, the efficacy of phenomenography, with attention not only to participants’ words but also their gestures, to explore mathematical conceptions.
Educational Studies in Mathematics, 2009
This paper reports a part of a study on the construction of mathematical meanings in terms of development of semiotic systems (gestures, speech in oral and written form, drawings) in a Vygotskian framework, where artefacts are used as tools of semiotic mediation. It describes a teaching experiment on perspective drawing at primary school (fourth to fifth grade classes), starting from a concrete experience with a Dürer’s glass to the interpretation of a new artefact. We analyse the long term process of appropriation of the mathematical model of perspective drawing (visual pyramid) through the development of gestures, speech and drawings under the teacher’s guidance.
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Proceedings of the 38th Conference of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education, 2014
This paper provides a detailed analysis of the mathematical communication involving a pair of high school calculus students who are English language learners. The paper focuses on the word-use, gestures and dragging actions in the student-pair communication about calculus concepts when paper-based static and then touchscreen dynamic diagrams. Findings suggest that the students relied on gestures and dragging as multimodal resources to communicate about dynamic aspects of calculus. Moreover, examining the interplay between language, gestures, dragging, and diagrams made it possible to uncover English language learners’ competencies in mathematical communications. This paper points to an expanded view of bilingual learners’ communication that includes gestures, dragging and diagrams.
International Journal of Computers for Mathematical Learning, 2008
This paper examines the relation between bodily actions, artifact-mediated activities, and semiotic processes that students experience while producing and interpreting graphs of two-dimensional motion in the plane. We designed a technology-based setting that enabled students to engage in embodied semiotic activities and experience two modes of interaction: 2D freehand motion and 2D synthesized motion, designed by the composition of single variable function graphs. Our theoretical framework combines two perspectives: the embodied approach to the nature of mathematical thinking and the Vygotskian notion of semiotic mediation. The article describes in detail the actions, gestures, graph drawings, and verbal discourse of one pair of high school students and analyzes the social semiotic processes they experienced. Our analysis shows how the computerized artifacts and the students' gestures served as means of semiotic mediation. Specifically, they supported the interpretation and the production of motion graphs; they mediated the transition between an individual's meaning of mathematical signs and culturally accepted mathematical meaning; and they enable linking bodily actions with formal signs.
Beyond Discourse: A Multimodal Perspective Of Learning Mathematics In A Multilingual Context
This paper presents the idea of multimodal teaching and learning and discusses how this perspective can help better understand the learning of students. The discussion is based on data gathered in a qualitative study of a fifth-grade bilingual classroom where at-risk students were successful in mathematics. We report on one class episode and one student as a case study for understanding multimodal learning. Analyses focus on how students use various texts such as speech and calculator keystrokes as resources to create meaning. This work suggests that a broader perspective and use of modes can support learning and provide students, especially those at-risk, with greater access to mathematics.