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Modelling and the representational imagination

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Abstract

This article examines the work of 30 in-service teachers engaged with modelling activities during a course within an Ecuadorian master’s degree program in mathematics teaching. These teachers experienced a sequence of activities designed to explore imaginative aspects of mathematical modelling and problem solving, inviting perspectives from life outside of school. They built rich connections between real-world phenomena and a range of ideas about functions and representations of them. An analysis of the teachers’ work identifies a modelling resource—the representational imagination—describing its nature and the implications for models of classroom modelling aiming to support this resource.

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Brady, C. Modelling and the representational imagination. ZDM Mathematics Education 50, 45–59 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11858-018-0926-4

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