Issues of a quasi-longitudinal study on different types of argumentation in the context of division by zero

Christian Fahse (1)

1 Institute of Mathematics, University of Koblenz-Landau, Campus Landau

In this study we explore students' ways of argumentation concerning division by zero. The answers of 365 students of four different grade levels in a German secondary school were analyzed on the basis of written texts of the students explaining their results of 7:0. Applying qualitative content analysis (Mayring, 2000), we were able to distinguish three different types of argumentation. The relative frequencies of these different types vary with the increasing age of the students: rich argumentations stagnate, apodictic references to an authority increase.

Keywords: Argumentation; reasoning; communication model; division by zero

Domains: Mathematics [math]; Humanities and Social Sciences

Christian Fahse. Issues of a quasi-longitudinal study on different types of argumentation in the context of division by zero. CERME 10, Feb 2017, Dublin, Ireland. ⟨hal-01865677⟩