Magnus Österholm

Magnus Österholm
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Title:		Objectification of upper-secondary teachers’ verbal discourse in relation to symbolic expressions
Type:		Article in The Journal of Mathematical Behavior
Fulltext:		Available on the webpage of the journal; direct link (limited access)
		Author version available, pdf-document

Abstract:

Research literature points to the importance of objectification when learning mathematics, and thereby in the discourse of mathematics. To increase the field’s understanding of aspects and degrees of objectification in various mathematical discourses, our study uses the combination of two sub-processes of objectification in order to analyse upper-secondary teachers’ word use in relation to any type of mathematical symbols. Our results show that the verbal discourse around symbols is very objectified. This can put high demands on students understanding of their teacher, since it might be needed that the students have reached a certain degree of objectification in their own thinking in order to be able to participate in a more objectified discourse. The results also show that there exist patterns in the variation of the degree of objectification, in particular that the discourse tends to be more objectified when more familiar symbols are used. This exploratory study also reveals several phenomena that could be the focus of more in-depth analyses in future studies.