This study examines how illustrations are used to introduce the concept of multiplication in Swedish mathematics textbooks intended for use with 2nd grade students. The aim is to find out how instructions and tasks are supported by illustrations by using a sociocultural perspective on learning with focus of mediating artifacts. The findings are compared to research in the field of mathematics didactics, where the importance of teaching multiplicative structures to primary school students is emphasized. With a method that categorize illustrations, insight is gained into how well they connect to the subject content, and in addition if they show additive or multiplicative multiplication. This study also looks into the extent that students are being instructed and encouraged to illustrate their answers to the textbook assignments. Results from the analyses of four 2nd grade mathematics textbook series, show that illustrations are used to a large extent to support text and numbers in introducing multiplication, but that all books contain pictures that contradict the subject content. The results also show that the majority of the illustrations demonstrate multiplication as repeated addition. Furthermore, this study suggests that when students are encouraged to draw pictures themselves, they are in most cases not given support and instructions to draw multiplicative multiplication. Based on earlier research within this field, as well as the findings of this study, it is argued that the dominant focus on repeated addition in illustrations can trap students in patterns of additive reasoning. This can interfere with their perception and comprehension of multiplication structure, and lead to limitations of students’ further development and understanding of mathematic concepts.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:sh-35496 |
| Date | January 2018 |
| Creators | Ahlgren, Anna |
| Publisher | Södertörns högskola, Lärarutbildningen |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
Page generated in 0.0022 seconds