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Working with artefacts: gestures, drawings and speech in the construction of the mathematical meaning of the visual pyramid

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Abstract

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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Notes

  1. A utilization scheme (Rabardel 1995) is an active structure into which past experiences are incorporated and organized, in such a way that it becomes a reference for interpreting new data. As such, a utilization scheme is a structure with a history, which changes as it is adapted to an expanding range of situations and is contingent upon the meanings attributed to the situations by the individual.

  2. “Thus painting will be nothing more than intersection of the visual pyramid”.

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Correspondence to Michela Maschietto.

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This paper reports a part of a study carried out together with Maria Alessandra Mariotti and Franca Ferri, within the National Project PRIN 200501972: “Meanings, conjectures, proofs: From basic research in mathematics education to curricular implications”.

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Maschietto, M., Bartolini Bussi, M.G. Working with artefacts: gestures, drawings and speech in the construction of the mathematical meaning of the visual pyramid. Educ Stud Math 70, 143–157 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10649-008-9162-0

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