Applying a new framework of connections between mathematical symbols and natural language

IF 1 Q3 EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH

Journal of Mathematical Behavior Pub Date : 2023-09-12 DOI:10.1016/j.jmathb.2023.101097

Ulrika Wikström Hultdin, Ewa Bergqvist, Tomas Bergqvist, Lotta Vingsle, Magnus Österholm

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

A reader of mathematical text must often switch between reading mathematical symbols and reading words. In this study, five different categories of structural connections between symbols and language, which invite such switches, are presented in a framework. The framework was applied in a study of Swedish mathematics textbooks, where 180 randomly selected pages from different educational stages were analyzed. The results showed a significant change in communication patterns as students progress through school. From a predomination of connections based on proximity found in year two, there is a gradual change to a predomination of symbols interwoven in sentences in year eight. Furthermore, more qualitative investigations of the different connections complemented the quantification, both through further explanations of the quantitative results, and through more examples of differences in communication patterns. The implications for readers of mathematics texts are discussed.

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应用数学符号与自然语言之间联系的新框架

数学文本的读者必须经常在阅读数学符号和阅读文字之间切换。在这项研究中，五个不同类别的符号和语言之间的结构连接，引起这种转换，在一个框架中提出。该框架被应用于对瑞典数学教科书的研究，其中随机选择了180页不同教育阶段的内容进行了分析。结果显示，随着学生在学校的进步，交流模式发生了重大变化。从第2年发现的基于邻近的连接的优势，到第8年逐渐转变为在句子中交织的符号的优势。此外，通过对定量结果的进一步解释，以及通过更多交流模式差异的例子，对不同联系进行了更多定性调查，以补充定量研究。讨论了数学文本对读者的影响。

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来源期刊

Journal of Mathematical Behavior EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH-

CiteScore

2.70

自引率

17.60%

发文量

期刊介绍： The Journal of Mathematical Behavior solicits original research on the learning and teaching of mathematics. We are interested especially in basic research, research that aims to clarify, in detail and depth, how mathematical ideas develop in learners. Over three decades, our experience confirms a founding premise of this journal: that mathematical thinking, hence mathematics learning as a social enterprise, is special. It is special because mathematics is special, both logically and psychologically. Logically, through the way that mathematical ideas and methods have been built, refined and organized for centuries across a range of cultures; and psychologically, through the variety of ways people today, in many walks of life, make sense of mathematics, develop it, make it their own.