Modelling as the starting point for the development of mathematical argumentation and critical democratic competence

Project summary

This project will investigate the use of modelling by preservice teachers to promote students' development of mathematical argumentation and critical democratic competence. This will be done with inspiration from educational design research. Further the project seeks to discover how preservice teachers, based on theory and own experiences, define and develop a modelling activity with the purpose of promoting mathematical argumentation and critical democratic competence, as well as how the preservice teachers support this in the classroom. The data collection will be in the form of video recordings, sound recordings, interviews as well as the end result of the modelling activity. The project will follow one group of preservice teachers in one of their mathematics courses. This is a one-semester course and the data will be collected from the preservice teachers work with the course and form their practice. The preservice teachers' own definition of what a modelling activity that promotes mathematical argumentation and critical democratic competence should include, will be used to analyze the data. This gives the opportunity to look at the results in comparison to the preservice teachers own goals with their teaching of the students. It will also be useful to use Conner, Singletary, Smith, Wagner, and Francisco’s (2014) framework to study the preservice teachers' support of the students' argumentation in full-class situations. This framework provides an opportunity to study the way in which preservice teachers support the students' argumentation. This framework is based on Toulmin's (2003) model of argumentation. It is expected that the project will result in three articles. The first will address the preservice teachers' thoughts on important aspects of the modelling activity. The next will examine how preservice teachers can use their experiences to improve their teaching. The latter will look into the preservice teachers’ support of the students' mathematical argumentation in full class discussions.