Mathematical activity and the transformations of semiotic representations

pp. 21-43

in: Raymond Duval, Understanding the mathematical way of thinking, Berlin, Springer, 2017

Abstract

This chapter discusses the importance of semiotic representations in mathematical knowledge as tools both to access the mathematical objects and to establish correspondences between these objects and different forms of representation. The transformations of semiotic representations are at the heart of the mathematical way of working and to teach it is crucial to develop students' cognitive skills to put different representations in correspondence.