Volume
24
Issue
1
Abstract
The shape of a graph arising from the covariation of variables is a crucial idea in reasoning about functions and graphs. Students’ perspectives on graph shape may foreground visual features and consider the shape to be a fixed property of the function (static graphical shape thinking). In contrast, students can perceive the graph as a trace of covarying quantities, through which its shape arises (emergent graphical shape thinking). It is of interest to understand how these perspectives are supported and promoted by teachers in classroom discourse. We present findings from a study of classroom discourse in which we used systemic functional linguistics (SFL) to identify features of how teachers and students described graphs. We identified informal but vivid descriptions of graphs that may have affordances for, and even foreground, emergent graphical shape thinking.
First Page
69
Last Page
90
Rights
© 2027 The Authors & Department of Mathematical Sciences, University of Montana
Recommended Citation
Kimber, Elizabeth and Smith, Cathy
(2027)
"Affordances for graphical shape thinking through vivid informal classroom talk,"
The Mathematics Enthusiast: Vol. 24
:
No.
1
, Article 4.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.54870/1551-3440.1697
Available at:
https://scholarworks.umt.edu/tme/vol24/iss1/4
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
10.54870/1551-3440.1697
Publisher
University of Montana, Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library
