Contextualizing Action for the Abstraction of Scientific Knowledge

Yılmaz Sağlam

doi:10.12973/eurasia.2015.1426a

Full Text (PDF)

Yılmaz Sağlam ¹ ^*

More Detail

¹ Gaziantep University, TURKEY^* Corresponding Author

Abstract

Background:
In this paper, abstraction is associated with an activity in the sense of activity theory by Vygotsky. To him, participation in social activities is a fundamental act for the child in order to achieve higher mental functions. The present paper aimed to experimentally investigate the abstraction process and illustrate how meaning emerges on social plane from the perspective of theory of abstraction.

Materials and methods:
The analysis is from a science classroom activity.The activity was videotaped, transcribed, and later translated into English.

Results:
The results indicated that in the course of the activity, four nested contexts emerged. And, the contexts were created through the interaction amongst the teacher, students and the cultural tools.

Conclusions:
In a contextualizing action, therefore, five central elements play important role, scene, agent, purpose, act and agency.

Keywords

abstraction
contextualizing action
social plane
and emergence of meaning

License

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Research Article

EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed, Volume 11, Issue 6, 2015, 1621-1632

https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2015.1426a

Publication date: 25 Aug 2015

Article Views: 1661

Article Downloads: 953

Open Access References How to cite this article

References

Bakhtin, M. M. (1981). The dialogic imagination: Four essays by M. M. Bakhtin. Ed. M. Holguist; trans. C. Emerson and M. Holquist. Austin: University of Texas.
Billig, M. (1991). Arguing and thinking. A rhetorical approach to social psychology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Blumer, H. (1969). Symbolic İnteractionism. Englewood Cliff, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Cassirer, E. (1923). Substance and function & Einsteins theory of relativity. New York: Dover.
Cassirer, E. (1957). The philosophy of symbolic forms (Vol. 3): The phenomenology of knowledge. New haven/London: Yale University Press.
Chalmers, A. F. (1999). What is this thing called Science, (3rd Ed). Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing Company.
Cobb, P., Yackel, E. & Wood, T. (1993). Theoretical orientation. In T. Wood, P. Cobb, E. Yackel, & D. Dillon (Eds.) Rethinking elementary school mathematics: insights and issues. Reston, VA: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.
Cobb, P., Yackel, E., & Wood, T. (1989). Young children's emotional acts while doing mathematical problem solving. In D. B. McLeod & V. M. Adams (Eds.), Affect and mathematical problem solving: A new perspective (pp. 117-148). New York, NY: Springer-Verlag.
Davydov, V. V. (1990). Soviet studies in mathematics education: Vol. 2. Types of generalization in instruction: Logical and psychological problems in the structuring of school curricula (J. Kilpatrick, Ed., & J. Teller, Trans.). Reston, VA: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. (Original work published 1972).
Dewey, J., (1910) How we think, New York, NY: Heath & Co.
Hershkowitz, R., Schwarz, B., & Dreyfus, T. (2001). Abstraction in context: Epistemic actions. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 32, 195-222.
Kennedy, N. S. (2009). Towards a dialogic pedagogy: Some characteristics of a community of mathematical inquiry. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science & Technology Education, 5 (1), 71-78.
Lawson, A. E., (1995). Science teaching and the development of thinking. California: ITB.
Lee, J.A. (2000). The scientific endeavor. San Francisco: Addison-Wesley Longman.
Locke, J. (1690). An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. Kitchener, Ontario, Canada: Batoche Books.
Monaghan, J., & Ozmantar, M.F. (2006). Abstraction and consolidation. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 62, 233-258.
National Academy of Sciences. (1998). Teaching about evolution and the nature of science. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
Ohlsson, S., & Lehtinen, E. (1997). Abstraction and the acquisition of complex ideas. International Journal of Educational Research, 27, 37-48.
Ozmantar, M. F., & Monaghan, J. (2007a). A dialectical approach to the formation of mathematical abstractions. Mathematics Education Research Journal, 19(2), 89-112.
Ozmantar, M. F., & Monaghan, J. (2007b). Are mathematical abstractions situated? In A. Watson, & P. Winbourne (Eds.), New directions for situated cognition in mathematics education (pp. 103-128). New York, NY: Springer.
Patton, M. Q. (2002). Variety in qualitative inquiry: theoretical orientations. In C. D. Laughton, V. Novak, D. E. Axelsen, K. Journey, & K. Peterson (Eds.), Qualitative research & evaluation methods. Thousands Oaks, London: Sage Publications.
Piaget, J. (1970). Genetic epistemology. New York: W.W. Norton.
Piaget, J. (2001). Studies in reflecting abstraction (R.L. Campbell, Ed. & Trans.). Philadelphia, PA: Psychology Press.
Popper, K. (2004). Conjectures and refutations. The growth of scientific knowledge. New York, NY: Routledge.
Rogoff, B. (1990). Apprenticeship in thinking: Cognitive development in social context. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Tsamir, P., & Dreyfus, T. (2002). Comparing infinite sets—a process of abstraction: The case of Ben. Journal of Mathematical Behavior, 21, 1-23
van Oers, B. (1998). From context to contextualizing. Learning and Instruction, 8(6), 473-488.
van Oers, B. (2001). Contextualisation for abstraction. Cognitive Science Quarterly, 1, 279- 305.
Voigt, J. (1995). Thematic patterns of interaction and socio-mathematical norms. In P. Cobb & H. Bauersfield (Eds.), The emergence of mathematical meaning (pp.163-203). New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Voigt, J. (1992, August). Negotiation of mathematical meaning in classroom practices: Social inter-action and learning mathematics. Paper presented at the Seventh International Congress on Mathematical Education, Quebec City.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Vygotsky, L. (1981). The genesis of higher mental functions. In J. V. Wertsch (Ed.), The concept of activity in Soviet psychology (pp. 144–188). Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe.
Vygotsky, L.S. (1983). The history of higher mental functions. In Collected Works. V. 3. Moscow: Pedagogika (in Russian, written in 1931).
Vygotsky, L.S., & Luria, A. R. (1993). Studies on the history of behavior: Ape, primitive and child. Hilsdale, N. J.: Erlbaum.
Wertsch, J.V. (1998). Mind as action. New York: Oxford University Press.
White, P. and Mitchelmore, M. C. (2010). Teaching for abstraction: A model, Mathematical Thinking and Learning, 12(3), 205-226.
Wickman, P.-O., & Östman, L. (2002). Induction as an empirical problem: How students generalize during practical work. International Journal of Science Education, 24, 465 – 486.
Yackel, E., & Rasmussen, C. (2002). Beliefs and norms in the mathematics classroom. In G. Leder, E. Pehkonen, & G. Toerner (Eds.), Beliefs: A hidden variable in mathematics education? (pp. 313–330). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer.
Yackel, E. (2004). Theoretical perspectives for analyzing explanation, justification and argumentation in mathematics classrooms. Journal of the Korea Society of Mathematical Education Series D: Research in Mathematical Education, 8(1), 1-18.

How to cite this article

APA

Sağlam, Y. (2015). Contextualizing Action for the Abstraction of Scientific Knowledge. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 11(6), 1621-1632. https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2015.1426a

Vancouver

Sağlam Y. Contextualizing Action for the Abstraction of Scientific Knowledge. EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed. 2015;11(6):1621-32. https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2015.1426a

AMA

Sağlam Y. Contextualizing Action for the Abstraction of Scientific Knowledge. EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed. 2015;11(6), 1621-1632. https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2015.1426a

Chicago

Sağlam, Yılmaz. "Contextualizing Action for the Abstraction of Scientific Knowledge". Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education 2015 11 no. 6 (2015): 1621-1632. https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2015.1426a

Harvard

Sağlam, Y. (2015). Contextualizing Action for the Abstraction of Scientific Knowledge. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 11(6), pp. 1621-1632. https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2015.1426a

MLA

Sağlam, Yılmaz "Contextualizing Action for the Abstraction of Scientific Knowledge". Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, vol. 11, no. 6, 2015, pp. 1621-1632. https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2015.1426a