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Teaching through Variation

A European Perspective

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Teaching and Learning Mathematics through Variation

Part of the book series: Mathematics Teaching and Learning ((MTAL))

Abstract

This book is about variation and invariance in the teaching of mathematics, that is, about what instances, examples, tasks are used and in which order, to make it possible for students to make concepts, principles, methods their own. Although we can find cases of individual teachers and individual textbook authors paying special attention to such aspects of the teaching of mathematics in different places in the world and at different points in time, such focused attention on the pattern of similarities and differences-especially on the latter-between tasks, instances, examples seems have been particularly common in China for a long time. Moreover, this character of Chinese practice of teaching mathematics has been made explicit by Gu (1991) who called it Bianshi (i.e. teaching with variation) and who tried to relate it to theoretical and empirical research on the learning and teaching of mathematics (in the following the acronym “BS” is used to widely refer to the Chinese tradition of systematically using variation and invariance in the teaching of mathematics).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pedagogical, Curricular and Professional Studies, University of Gothenburg, Sweden

    Ference Marton

  2. Department of Pedagogical, Curricular and Professional Studies & National Centre for Mathematics Education, University of Gothenburg, Sweden

    Johan Häggström

Authors
  1. Ference Marton
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  2. Johan Häggström
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Middle Tennessee State University, USA

    Rongjin Huang

  2. Texas A&M University, USA

    Yeping Li

  3. Shanghai Normal University, China

    Yeping Li

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Marton, F., Häggström, J. (2017). Teaching through Variation. In: Huang, R., Li, Y. (eds) Teaching and Learning Mathematics through Variation. Mathematics Teaching and Learning. SensePublishers, Rotterdam. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6300-782-5_22

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6300-782-5_22

  • Publisher Name: SensePublishers, Rotterdam

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-6300-782-5

  • eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)

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