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Supporting Students’ Critical Literacy: Mathematical Modeling and Economic Decisions

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Exploring Mathematical Modeling with Young Learners

Part of the book series: Early Mathematics Learning and Development ((EMLD))

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to highlight two mathematical modeling tasks that integrate economics and mathematics and discuss how this integration can support students’ development of critical literacy. Economics, as a field based on mathematical modeling, provides a natural way to integrate mathematical modeling into the elementary curriculum. This chapter describes how prospective teachers were introduced to mathematical modeling in a mathematics methods course and how one of those prospective teachers implemented a mathematical modeling task in her internship classroom shortly thereafter. Jana, the prospective teacher and second author of this chapter, describes how she saw an opportunity to integrate mathematics into a social living lesson focused on economics, which she had to teach as part of her internship. The goal of the task was for the third grade students to see how economics and mathematics are applicable in the real world and are often intertwined. Integrating mathematical modeling with economics provides unique opportunities for students to use mathematics to evaluate real-world situations and approach knowledge critically.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA

    Melissa A. Gallagher

  2. LeBlanc Elementary School, Abbeville, LA, USA

    Jana P. Jones

Authors
  1. Melissa A. Gallagher
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  2. Jana P. Jones
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Melissa A. Gallagher .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. College of Education and Human Development, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA

    Jennifer M. Suh

  2. Department of Mathematical Sciences, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, USA

    Megan H. Wickstrom

  3. Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

    Lyn D. English

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Gallagher, M.A., Jones, J.P. (2021). Supporting Students’ Critical Literacy: Mathematical Modeling and Economic Decisions. In: Suh, J.M., Wickstrom, M.H., English, L.D. (eds) Exploring Mathematical Modeling with Young Learners. Early Mathematics Learning and Development. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63900-6_16

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63900-6_16

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-63899-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-63900-6

  • eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)

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