2001/03/01 by Rina Hershkowitz, Baruch B. Schwarz, Tommy Dreyfus · 1 citation
Neuroscience · Psychology · Social Sciences · #Embodied and Extended Cognition #Innovative Teaching and Learning Methods #Mathematics Education and Teaching Techniques
paper · doi:10.2307/749673
crossref issued 2001/03/01 · crossref published 2001/03/01 · crossref published-print 2001/03/01 · openalex publication_date 2001/03/01 · crossref created 2007/02/03 · crossref deposited 2021/01/27 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · crossref indexed 2026/07/25 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/26
ion in Context: Epistemic Actions Rina Hershkowitz, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel Baruch B. Schwarz, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel Tommy Dreyfus, Holon Academic Institute of Technology, Israel We propose an approach to the theoretical and empirical identification processes of abstraction in context. Although our outlook is theoretical, our thinking about abstraction emerges from the analysis of interview data. We consider abstraction an activity of vertically reorganizing previously constructed mathematics into a new mathematical structure. We use the term activity to emphasize that abstraction is a process with a history; it may capitalize on tools and other artifacts, and it occurs in a particular social setting. We present the core of a model for the genesis of abstraction. The principal components of the model are three dynamically nested epistemic actions: constructing, recognizing, and building-with. To study abstraction is to identify these epistemic actions of students participating in an activity of abstraction.