Using the Modelling Activity Diagram Framework to Characterise Students’ Activities: A Case for Geometrical Constructions

This chapter reports from a study investigating the use of a modelling task that was given to sixty-two Grade 11 students from two schools in low socio-economic areas in South Africa. The Modelling Activity Diagram (MAD) framework was used to characterise students’ mathematical thinking style when working on a real-world problem on geometrical constructions. Although students were able to find solutions to the scaffolded questions, they had problems with identifying key mathematical concepts required during the mathematisation process and assumptions required to solve the modelling task. Only 16% of the students successfully completed the modelling task.