Chapter 3: Integrating Different Representational Media in Geometry Classrooms

The integration of different representational media is suggested by a number of researchers as an approach that leads to more unified cognitive constructs of mathematical ideas. In the present paper, we attempt to extend this view to accommodate the changes that the integration of representational media may bring to the discourses existing in the mathematics classroom. More specifically, we combined written and verbal forms of representation in a learning situation that included the haptic exploration and construction of models of three-dimensional objects. We present findings from the implementation of the activities in one fourth grade and one fifth grade class in a primary school in Patras, Greece. From our analysis it became evident that the integration of representational media helped students to become more conscious of the processes of organising coherent texts to communicate mathematical understandings. Moreover, the integration of different modes of communication may be able to challenge existing ways of communication in mathematics classrooms.