Abstract
Mathematical literacy implies the capacity to apply mathematical knowledge to various and context-related problems in a functional, flexible and practical way. Improving mathematical literacy requires a learning environment that stimulates students cognitively as well as allowing them to collect practical experiences through connections with the real world. In order to achieve this, students should be confronted with many different facets of reality. They should be given the opportunity to participate in carrying out experiments, to be exposed to verbal argumentative discussions and to be involved in model-building activities. This leads to the idea of integrating science into maths education. Two sequences of lessons were developed and tried out at the University of Education Schwäbisch Gmünd integrating scientific topics and methods into maths lessons at German secondary schools. The results show that the scientific activities and their connection with reality led to well-based discussions. The connection between the phenomenon and the model remained remarkably close during the entire series of lessons. At present the sequences of lessons are integrated in the European ScienceMath project, a joint project between universities and schools in Denmark, Finland, Slovenia and Germany (see www.sciencemath.ph-gmuend.de).
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Notes
A detailed description of the teaching units, including some examples from the worksheets mentioned in this article, is given as a download under www.sciencemath.ph-gmuend.de (link: Teaching Material).
A more detailed description of worksheets and pupil’s ideas given as a download under www.sciencemath.ph-gmuend.de (link: Teaching Material).
Complete worksheets: see Beckmann (2006).
All utterances produced by the students represent example cases supporting the results of the qualtitative analysis of the lessons.
A graph matching the test results is intended here.
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Höfer, T., Beckmann, A. Supporting mathematical literacy: examples from a cross-curricular project. ZDM Mathematics Education 41, 223–230 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11858-008-0117-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11858-008-0117-9