Norwegian Primary Teachers’ Shared Understandings of Mathematical Modelling

This chapter presents study findings concerning Norwegian upper primary school teachers’ group cognition around mathematical modelling. This survey-based study elicited 220 teachers’ definitions of what constituted mathematical modelling in the classroom. To be assessed as ‘complete’, the definitions had to include (a) a task, (b) a transition between mathematics and reality, and (c) a process or cycle. Results showed that 29% of respondents recognised a transition between mathematics and reality, 9% mentioned a problem or task, and no respondents referenced a cycle or process in their definitions. This indicates that with this group of respondents, the relationship between mathematics and reality is the most widely known element of mathematical modelling, but that a group cognition—a shared understanding—of mathematical modelling is lacking.