Förderung der fachkommunikativen Kompetenz bei angehenden Mathematiklehrkräften der Sekundarstufen : Konzeption, Entwicklung und Erprobung eines Lernhefts

Wallraf, Regine Maria Martha; Heitzer, Johanna (Thesis advisor); Schmidt-Thieme, Barbara (Thesis advisor)

Aachen : RWTH Aachen University (2021)
Dissertation / PhD Thesis

Dissertation, RWTH Aachen University, 2021

Abstract

Technical language is a powerful tool to represent the abstract objects of mathematics and to make them accessible to thinking in a precise way. This makes a conscious use of technical language by the mathematics teacher important for a successful mathematical teaching-learning processes. With this background the topic of this dissertation project is the technical communication competence of (future) mathematics teachers. Besides the importance of the technical language to get access to mathematics, the motivation to study the use of technical language by future and unexperienced mathematics teachers lies in the fact, that students of mathematics teaching (at the RWTH Aachen University) show weaknesses in subject communication: Occasionally, technical linguistic utterances are not appropriate. They are accurate for the most part, nevertheless, they are didactically less supportive for the learning process and the target group. The main challenge for prospective mathematics teachers is to consider the learners’ abilities in subject communication by using technical terms, locutions and notations. Furthermore, many of mathematics didactic investigations for the teacher training concerning technical communication focus on the transition from school to university: Their aim is to get students used to the specific technical language of experts in mathematics. In contrast, this dissertation focuses more on the use of technical language by mathematics teachers in teaching-learning processes. The high importance lies in the knowledge asymmetry in technical language between mathematics teachers and their students. The contribution of this dissertation project to research and teaching in mathematics didactics is to be located at both, theoretical and practical level: Interdisciplinary considerations about mathematics didactics and technical language linguistics will be presented based on a competence model of the linguist Thorsten Roelcke. This theoretical approach is applied to describe the concept of technical communicative competence. Furthermore, mathematics specific characteristics of technical communication competence are derived. On the practical level, theoretical considerations lead to the conception and the development of a workbook. The core of this workbook are three interdisciplinary learning cycles on the thematic priorities "ambiguity - minus sign", "metaphors - limits" and "synonyms & paraphrases - significance tests". They are reflect the inseparable connection between language and thinking and include a sensibilization for the relevance of a conscious and audience-oriented use of the technical language. Furthermore, they provide principles and recommendations for the practical implementation of technical language in teaching to future mathematics teachers. This thesis shows the reader the significance of a technical communication competence education for (prospective) secondary mathematics teachers. It also describes the conception and the development of the workbook as well as the evaluation results with the intention to give lecturers a well-founded decision basis for the integration of the workbook into their own teacher training.

Institutions

• Department of Mathematics [110000]
• Didactics of Mathematics Teaching and Research Area [112320]