Page 266 - Igor Ž. Žagar in Ana Mlekuž, ur. Raziskovanje v vzgoji in izobraževanju: mednarodni vidiki vzgoje in izobraževanja. Ljubljana: Pedagoški inštitut, 2020. Digitalna knjižnica, Dissertationes 38
P. 266
r aziskovanje v vzgoji in izobr aževanju: mednarodni vidki vzgoje in izobr aževanja
Mathematical modelling in Primary School
Mathematical modelling can be applied at all levels of education, but even
though it is the case, (Diezmann et al., 2002; Doerr & English, 2003) it is
not much applied in primary schools and on the basic level of education.
There is some research that shows that mathematical modelling can be ef-
fectively applied for developing mathematical competences in engaging
and complex, but meaningful activities with primary school students (Do-
err & English, 2003).
In our study we used mathematical modelling as a base for teaching
young students (age 10 years) different mathematical concepts: from basic
mathematical calculating operation to the beginnings of one of the most
important mathematical notion such as function. Learning mathemati-
cal operation and calculation is usual to connect with real-world context,
but functions are not that common topic in primary schools, since that is
an advanced concept. The idea for our study to introduce young learners
with functions come from the fact that functions are one the most impor-
tant mathematical concepts, but also a mathematical concept that is hard
to grasp for students.
In order to introduce students in the elementary school (9-10 years
old) to concepts of function we explored the possibilities of mathemati-
cal modelling application. We have applied mathematical modelling-based
lessons in order to convey to students’ different mathematical concepts and
finally the mathematical concept of functions. The duration of the research
was one year on the sample of 70 students in several primary schools in
Bosnia and Herzegovina.
One of the modelling examples that was presented to students in or-
der to highlight the concept of function was based on the real-world situa-
tion of population. For the purpose of the mathematical modelling we took
the real-life situation of the population change. The real-life situation was
a story about a village and its inhabitants. The task offered the informa-
tion about population gender and age structure. It was written in the form
of story. The first step was to understand the real-world situation and in-
formation given in the text. The text hide problems that students needed to
solve. Problems were in the form of the unfinished sentences or visual rep-
resentation of information from the text. In Figure 12 we can see the graph-
ical representation of solution of the real-world problem where students
needed to find and represent number of boys and girls in the one class in
the village school.
266
Mathematical modelling in Primary School
Mathematical modelling can be applied at all levels of education, but even
though it is the case, (Diezmann et al., 2002; Doerr & English, 2003) it is
not much applied in primary schools and on the basic level of education.
There is some research that shows that mathematical modelling can be ef-
fectively applied for developing mathematical competences in engaging
and complex, but meaningful activities with primary school students (Do-
err & English, 2003).
In our study we used mathematical modelling as a base for teaching
young students (age 10 years) different mathematical concepts: from basic
mathematical calculating operation to the beginnings of one of the most
important mathematical notion such as function. Learning mathemati-
cal operation and calculation is usual to connect with real-world context,
but functions are not that common topic in primary schools, since that is
an advanced concept. The idea for our study to introduce young learners
with functions come from the fact that functions are one the most impor-
tant mathematical concepts, but also a mathematical concept that is hard
to grasp for students.
In order to introduce students in the elementary school (9-10 years
old) to concepts of function we explored the possibilities of mathemati-
cal modelling application. We have applied mathematical modelling-based
lessons in order to convey to students’ different mathematical concepts and
finally the mathematical concept of functions. The duration of the research
was one year on the sample of 70 students in several primary schools in
Bosnia and Herzegovina.
One of the modelling examples that was presented to students in or-
der to highlight the concept of function was based on the real-world situa-
tion of population. For the purpose of the mathematical modelling we took
the real-life situation of the population change. The real-life situation was
a story about a village and its inhabitants. The task offered the informa-
tion about population gender and age structure. It was written in the form
of story. The first step was to understand the real-world situation and in-
formation given in the text. The text hide problems that students needed to
solve. Problems were in the form of the unfinished sentences or visual rep-
resentation of information from the text. In Figure 12 we can see the graph-
ical representation of solution of the real-world problem where students
needed to find and represent number of boys and girls in the one class in
the village school.
266
