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Creativity in engineering mathematical models through programming

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Abstract

We discuss classroom activity comprised of small groups of students collaboratively tinkering with programs of dynamically manipulable figural models, posing problems regarding their mathematical properties and behaviors. We analyzed data from students’ discourse taken from two classroom interventions employing a framework of creative mathematical action-in-context, in order to study student-generated ideas. We approached students' actions taking a fallible mathematics epistemological approach and employed constructionist and social creativity theory in our analysis. Our results show that student agency in the disciplined field of mathematical thinking need not curtail the potential for undisciplined creative action: on the contrary, given appropriate tools and discursive environments it may in fact create space for actions with creative potential for students. On their own accord, the students in the study used generalized number theory to resolve engineering a parallelogram that can never be a rectangle, and used recursion to program a model embedding geometrical progression in order to create a spiral based on the golden ratio.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Educational Technology Lab, School of Philosophy, Dept. of Educational Studies, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece

    Chronis Kynigos

  2. Linnaeus University, Växjö, Sweden

    Dimitris Diamantidis

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  1. Chronis Kynigos
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  2. Dimitris Diamantidis
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Correspondence to Chronis Kynigos.

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Kynigos, C., Diamantidis, D. Creativity in engineering mathematical models through programming. ZDM Mathematics Education 54, 149–162 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11858-021-01314-6

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