Workshop
room KA 102
The language of graphs and tables. Language-oriented mathematics teaching in professionally oriented contexts
Wijers, Monica, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands
Jonker, Vincent, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands
The aim of the Lamavoc project (a EU funded project) is developing a teaching approach and respective teaching units for workplace-related and language-integrated mathematics learning on the mathematical topics fields of percentages, proportional reasoning and graphs/tables for vocational classes in the technical and agricultural sector.
Students in (pre)vocational education have difficulties in learning and understanding mathematics. Especially in the lower levels of vocational education students are low achievers in the area of mathematics. This is a problem for both the school career and the skills needed for specific professions. One of the reasons why students have difficulties in understanding mathematics is the role of language. In vocational education the mathematics is used in an applied setting, and that means that the context is important and that language plays an important role for understanding the situation.
Three countries are involved in this Lamavoc project (Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands), where teacher trainers, teachers and researchers from vocational education work together in a three year project to develop materials for mathematics with dedicated support for the role of language. In this workshop we will focus on the topic ‘graphs/tables in professionally oriented contexts’, and we will discuss first findings from the project.
