“Sometimes it goes wrong!” – Teachers’ beliefs concerning experiments in mathematics

Sebastian Geisler (1) , Sarah Beumann (2)

1 RUB - Ruhr University Bochum = Ruhr-Universität Bochum
2 Bergische Universität Wuppertal

In didactic literature there are many practical materials to use experiments in mathematics classroom. Even though, experiments seem to be beneficial in mathematics education, little is known about what teachers think concerning this method. In this explorative study we want to examine the teachers’ beliefs about experiments and which relations they see between experiments and mathematics. We asked teachers from various school types in Germany, with an open-ended questionnaire. Our results indicate that most teachers see experiments either as controlled and planful procedure or as “trial and error”. Furthermore, teachers state mainly two relations between experiments and mathematics.

Mots clés: Experiments; teachers’ beliefs; grounded theory

Domaines: Mathématiques [math]; Education

Sebastian Geisler, Sarah Beumann. “Sometimes it goes wrong!” – Teachers’ beliefs concerning experiments in mathematics. Eleventh Congress of the European Society for Research in Mathematics Education, Utrecht University, Feb 2019, Utrecht, Netherlands. ⟨hal-02430468⟩