norwegian upper secondary school students' views of mathematics ...

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The images here are analysed by picture analysis (Långström & Viklund, 2010) asking how persons and things are grouped/placed in the image, what age and gender they have, and how they are dressed and moving. Further I describe the background, foreground, the middle, left and right in the picture, if any. Validation was done by comparing with the descriptions made by a colleague. The students in this study have an age between those in the Picker and Berry study and in the studies of student teachers and teachers. I will make use of theoretical elements from several of the above mentioned studies in the analysis below. VIEWS OF MATHEMATICS The pupils’ written answers to the question “Hva er matematikk?” (What is mathematics?) will be presented here before the analysis. The exact wording in Norwegian is given first and then my translation in parenthesis afterwards. I have numbered the replies 1-12 in order to be able to link the respective drawings to the descriptions of mathematics. 1 Regning med tall (Calculations with numbers) 2 Læren/kunnskapen om tall, utregninger… (The theory/knowledge about numbers, calculations…) 3 Læren om tall og deres funsjon (The theory about numbers and their function) 4 Jeg tror matematikk er læren om tall og deres funksjoner. Matematikk er også en måte på å bruke hjernen til å utløse problemer. (I think mathematics is the theory about tall and their functions. Mathematics is also a way to use the brain to solve problems). 5 Tall, formler, likninger, naturvitenskap. (Numbers, formulas, equations, natural science). 6 En ting du bruker hver dag, en måte å finne ut ting på med tall. (Something you use every day, a way to find out about things with numbers). 7 Matematikk er et verktøy for å løse små og store problemer. Med hjelp av matematikk kan vi lage forenklede modeller av virkeligheten og forutsi et svar på et problem. (Mathematics is a tool for solving small and large problems. With the help of mathematics we can create simpified models of reality and hypothesise an answer to a problem). 8 Matematikk er tall og regning. (Mathematics is numbers and calculations). 9 Mattematikk er tall satt i systemer med system som kan multiplisere, dividere osv. Matte er i alt. Alt er matte. Stolene er matte, (Mathematics is numbers into systems with systems which can multiply, divide and so on. Maths is in everything. Everthing is maths. The chairs are maths, 10 Matematikk forbinder jeg med tall og størrelser og forholdet mellom dem. Kanskje bruker vi matematikken til å kartlegge våre omgivelser. (I relate mathematics to numbers
and quantities and the relation between them. Maybe we use mathematics to map our surroundings). 11 Tall eller symboler som legges sammen i en sum. (Numbers or symbols put together into a sum). 12 Ulike ”verdier” og samspillet mellom dem. (Different “values” and the interplay between them). IMAGES OF MATHEMATICIANS The twelve images I got from the pupils are enclosed in the appendix. I will now try to describe them as fully as possible before I analyse them. The copies of the original images are in the appendix. Drawing number one has a text above it: ”The typical mathematician:”. The picture shows a nice looking man in suite with his hands folded together in front of him. The age is indefinite; he could be young or old. The face looks calm and kind and both eyes and mouth are large and visible. The mouth seems to have a small smile on it. The hair is curly and large but not un-normally large. He looks like a normal man but maybe a little bit shy? Drawing number two shows an older man with round spectacles and a pen behind his left ear. He seems to be dressed in some kind of laboratory coat. He holds a pointer in his right hand and rests it on the floor. The left hand is in his pocket. In his upper pocket we can see a pencil and a ruler sticking up. His trousers are a little bit too long. He is almost bald and has a skewed smile on his face. Drawing number three has one part of an egg-shaped head on two foots which is crossed over. The other part is a man in trousers and naked upper body. His hair is large and curly, the mouth shows the teeth, the eyes are just two empty circles and there seems to be a small moustache. He is walking with his arms hanging straight down. Drawing number four shows a head of a man on an upper body which is just indicated. He is partly bald and has horn-rimmed spectacles. He has a little bit of dark hair on the sides of his head and he carries a black beard. The mouth is closed and expressionless. He is squint-eyed and speaks out a mathematical expression in a bubble. He looks a little bit frightening and cold. Drawing number five shows a walking man with a rather small body and a large head with a long neck and the Adam’s apple visible. He has a beard and the mouth is open and shows big teeth. The nose is big and the spectacles even bigger but the eyes are just two black dots. On the top of his head there are two straws of hair standing up. He looks frightening somehow. Drawing number six has an explaining text, which says: “I see an old man with a lot of hair on his head and spectacles sitting at a desk doing calculations on many
Page 1 and 2: NORWEGIAN UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL ST
Page 3: special powers. Picker and Berry pr
Page 7 and 8: quantity, formula, relation, symbol
Page 9: the Future. Proceedings of an Inter

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