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• Teaching polygons in the secondary school: a four country comparative study

  29-65

  Éva Szeredi

  Judit Török

  Views:

  11

  This study presents the analysis of four sequences of videotaped lessons on polygons in lower secondary schools (grades 7 and 8) taught by four different teachers in four different countries (Belgium, Flanders, England, Hungary and Spain). Our study is a part of the METE project (Mathematics Educational Traditions in Europe). The aims and methodology of the project are described briefly in the introduction. In the next section of this paper we describe various perspectives on teaching and learning polygons which were derived from the literature, concerning the objectives, conceptual aspects and didactic tools of the topic. The next two sections introduce the main outcomes of our study, a quantitative analysis of the collected data and a qualitative description linked to the perspectives on teaching polygons. We conclude by discussing some principal ideas related to the theoretical and educational significance of this research work.

• Forming the concept of congruence II.

  1-12

  Éva Szeredi

  Views:

  8

  This paper is a continuation of the article Forming the concept of congruence I., where I gave theoretical background to the topic, description of the traditional method of representing the isometries of the plane with its effect on the evolution of congruence concept.
  In this paper I describe a new method of representing the isometries of the plane. This method is closer to the abstract idea of 3-dimensional motion. The planar isometries are considered as restrictions of 3-dimensional motions and these are represented with free translocations given by flags.
  About the terminology: I use some important concepts connected to teaching of congruence, which have to be distinguished. My goal is to analyse different teaching methods of the 2-dimensional congruencies. I use the term 3-dimensional motion for the orientation preserving (direct) 3-dimensional isometry (which is also called rigid motion or rigid body move). When referring the concrete manipulative representation of the planar congruencies I will use the term translocation.

• Forming the concept of congruence I.

  181-192

  Éva Szeredi

  Views:

  1

  Teaching isometries of the plane plays a major role in the formation of the congruence-concept in the Hungarian curricula.
  In the present paper I investigate the way the isometries of the plane are traditionally introduced in most of the textbooks, especially the influence of the representations on the congruence concept, created in the teaching process.
  I am going to publish a second part on this topic about a non-traditional approach (Forming the concept of congruence II). The main idea is to introduce the isometries of the two dimensional plane with the help of concrete, enactive experiences in the three dimensional space, using transparent paper as a legitimate enactive tool for building the concept of geometric motion. I will show that this is both in strict analogy with the axioms of 3-dimensional motion and at the same time close to the children's intuitive concept of congruence.