Mathematical and pedagogical perspectives on warranting: approximating the root of 18

Authors

  • Jason Cooper Instituto Weizmann de Ciencias Rehovot. Departamento de Enseñanza de las Ciencias; Israel.
  • Alon Pinto Instituto Weizmann de Ciencias Rehovot. Departamento de Enseñanza de las Ciencias; Israel

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.33044/revem.26933

Keywords:

Mathematical warranting, mathematical validity, interacting perspectives.

Abstract

“The square root of 18 is closer to 4 than it is to 5 because 18 is closer to 16 than it is to 25”. Is this statement, voiced in an 8th grade class, valid? We suggest hypothetical arguments upon which this statement might be based, and analyze them from two complementary perspectives – epistemic and pedagogical – drawing on Toulmin’s notion of field-dependence in argumentation and on Freeman’s classification of warrants based on the type of underlying intuition, belief or prior understanding. We propose that our investigation of this statement may serve as a model for inquiry in teacher preparation.

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References

Borasi, R. (1996). Reconceiving Mathematics Instruction: a Focus on Errors. Norwood, NJ: Praeger.

Chazan, D., & Herbst, P. (2012). Animations of classroom interaction: expanding the boundaries of video records of practice. Teachers College Record, 114(3), 1-34.

Freeman, J. B. (2005). Systematizing Toulmin’s warrants: an epistemic approach. Argumentation, 19(3), 331-346.

Markovits, Z., Eylon, B., & Bruckheimer, M. (1983). Functions: linearity unconstrained. In R. Hershkowitz (Ed.), Proceedings of the 7th Conference of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (p. 271-277). Israel: Rehovot.

Nardi, E., Biza, I., & Zachariades, T. (2012). ‘Warrant’ revisited: integrating mathematics teachers’ pedagogical and epistemological considerations into Toulmin’s model for argumentation. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 79(2), 157-173.

Sfard, A. (2008). Thinking as Communicating: Human Development, the Growth of Discourses, and Mathematizing. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Toulmin, S. E. (1958). The Uses of Argument. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Von Glasersfeld, E. (1993). Questions and answers about radical constructivism. In K. G. Tobin (Ed.), The Practice of Constructivism in Science Education (p. 23-38). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.

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Published

2019-12-16

Issue

Section

Trabajos de Investigación en Educación Matemática

How to Cite

[1]
Cooper, J. and Pinto, .A. 2019. Mathematical and pedagogical perspectives on warranting: approximating the root of 18. Revista de Educación Matemática. 34, 3 (Dec. 2019), 41–57. DOI:https://doi.org/10.33044/revem.26933.