Quality Teaching of Mathematical Modelling: What Do We Know, What Can We Do?

“Why do I have to learn this?” A case study on students’ experiences of the relevance of mathematical modelling activities

“…in mathematics classrooms, asking for the relevance of doing mathematics. Based on the recommendation that the relevance of mathematics can be mediated through mathematical modelling activities (Blum 2015;Stillman et al 2013b), we translated this question into an object of study: students' experience of the relevance of mathematical modelling activities. Our research was guided by the question: How do students experience relevance of mathematical modelling activities?…”

“…However, instead of a teacher conveying relevance, in many curriculum documents there are recommendations that students should experience the usefulness of mathematics through mathematical modelling activities, in which students themselves use mathematics for solving real-life problems (Blum 2015;Stillman et al 2013b). This aim can be related to a pragmatic perspective on mathematical modelling (Kaiser 2014), which puts utilitarian aims for mathematical modelling activities in classrooms to the fore.…”

Mathematical Modeling: A Bridge to STEM Education

“…The majority of the arguments related to the STEM education perspective are common with the ideas stated by the community of researchers studying on mathematical modeling in mathematics education such as the need for developing students' competencies needed in this technology-based information age (English et al, 2013;English & Mousoulides, 2011;Lesh & Zawojewski, 2007;Niss, Blum & Galbraith, 2007). Furthermore, the obstacles such as the difficulty of integration into the curriculum, lack of professional knowledge of teachers, lack of curricular sources are some of the common problems indicated in the STEM education and mathematical modeling literature (e.g., Blum, 2015;Breiner et al, 2012;Corlu et al, 2014;Kaiser & Maaβ, 2007;Oliveira & Barbosa, 2009). In the following part, the theoretical perspectives of mathematical modeling will be introduced first, followed by a projection of the theoretical aspects of STEM education from the knowledge-base of mathematical modeling.…”

“…The research community of mathematical modeling from both perspectives suffers from the limited usage of modeling activities in mathematics classrooms (Blum, 2015;Burkhardt, 2006;Kaiser & Maaβ, 2007;Schmidt, 2011). The researchers determined various barriers for the limited usage of modeling activities such as teachers' limited professional knowledge about the nature of mathematical modeling and the ways of using it in teaching and learning of mathematics, teachers' habits of practices, and lack of curricular materials (Blum, 2015;Burkhardt & Pollak, 2006;Kaiser & Maaβ, 2007;Oliveira & Barbosa, 2009;Niss et al, 2007).…”

“…The researchers determined various barriers for the limited usage of modeling activities such as teachers' limited professional knowledge about the nature of mathematical modeling and the ways of using it in teaching and learning of mathematics, teachers' habits of practices, and lack of curricular materials (Blum, 2015;Burkhardt & Pollak, 2006;Kaiser & Maaβ, 2007;Oliveira & Barbosa, 2009;Niss et al, 2007). In recent studies, many researchers focused on describing and developing professional knowledge that pre-service and in-service teachers need for using modeling activities in their classrooms.…”