Looking Deeper into Modelling Processes: Studies with a Cognitive Perspective – Overview

Abstract

As pointed out by Galbraith and Stillman (2001), the issue of the role played by extra-mathematical knowledge in modelling and applications activities is part of an agenda shared by researchers and educators who are interested in the specific nature and characteristics of modelling activities within educational settings. An important aspect of such mathematical activities is the actual structure and elements of the context situation that are embedded (either explicitly or implicitly) in the task formulation, thus opening significant room for assumptions, interpretations and considerations concerning the so-called extra-mathematical world. Nurturing a long-standing debate on the nature of mathematical models and on the types of knowledge and experiences activated by mathematical modelling, the six articles composing this chapter highlight in very different and yet strikingly coherent ways the paramount role of knowledge, besides mathematics, in illuminating students’ processes, decisions and understandings while working on modelling tasks.