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Collective clutter and co-emerging complexity : enactivism and mathematical paths of understanding

This thesis reports on a qualitative study in which three fifth grade children were
presented with six nonroutine mathematical problems involving six different 3-D
pyramids, constructed out of multi-link cubes1. The children were videotaped while
they worked without any adult help as a cooperative group to solve the pyramid
problems. During these sessions, the students produced various 3-D cube models,
2-D drawings, and written records of arithmetic calculations as their solutions to the six
problems. Through the lens of enactivism, this study describes and interprets the coevolutionary
processes of the group's path of mathematical understandings as it
unfolded during the six videotaped sessions. The results revealed building, drawing,
and numbering as modes of representation of this group's problem solving work. An
analysis of these three modes of representation explored the co-emergence of the
children's individual and collective understandings, as well as the interrelationships
which existed between their spatial structuring and their use of numerical operations in
solving the pyramid problems.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/9791
Date11 1900
CreatorsThom, Jennifer Susan
Source SetsLibrary and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation
RelationUBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/]

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