Issues with using Activity Theory to understand how master's students view their research skills as contributing to their future teaching

Trude Fosse (1) , Troels Lange (1) , Tamsin Meaney (1)

1 Western Norway University of Applied Sciences

Using Engeström's third generation of activity theory, we explore three master's students' views of their completed research projects on children's argumentation in number stories as potentially contributing to their forthcoming teaching of Grade 1 students. Activity theory was chosen because it provided opportunities to consider how two different activity systems, research as part of teacher education and mathematics teaching in Grade 1, might overlap around the shared artefact of mathematical argumentation through number stories. The three interviews are analysed using Engeström's description of four levels of contradictions identified in a matrix of principles and questions. The analysis raised some issues with the use of Activity Theory to understand the master's students' learning from the contradictions between the two activity systems they were in-between.

Mots clés: Master's students; research skills; number stories; third generation of activity theory

Domaines: Mathématiques [math]

Trude Fosse, Troels Lange, Tamsin Meaney. Issues with using Activity Theory to understand how master's students view their research skills as contributing to their future teaching. Twelfth Congress of the European Society for Research in Mathematics Education (CERME12), Feb 2022, Bozen - Bolzano, Italy. ⟨hal-03749087⟩