Moving Beyond Mute Modelling Praxeologies in Preservice Elementary Teacher Education

Some investigations have shown that teachers and students are not always provided with the appropriate discursive elements needed to describe and justify mathematical modelling processes. Our previous research, developed in the framework of the anthropological theory of the didactic, has used the notion of modelling praxeology and the distinction between “mute” and “sound” praxeologies depending on what parts of the modelling process are explicitly stated and managed during teaching and learning processes. We illustrate the analysis in a teacher education programme showing how new epistemological tools are elaborated with teachers as part of the modelling praxeologies. In particular, we saw how giving names to the intermediate models built and elaborate a discourse to talk about the process of modelling help turn mute praxeologies into sound ones.