Mathematical Connections: a growing construct

Making mathematical connections has been an important issue in mathematics education for many years. That is partly because establishing connections between mathematical concepts, ideas, or procedures enables students to know how to use them in variety of contexts, as well as to explain why they work.

Mathematical connections can emerge, for example, when students undertake mathematical tasks or solve mathematical problems. How they can be brought the surface has been an interest of many researchers. As a result, models or taxonomies have attempted to capture mathematical connections in student (or teacher) written texts or in the oral arguments that they generate.

An Article Collection published in the International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology brings together 8 papers, whose authors have contributed to the development of the model for mathematical connections.

In Table 1 in this Collection, an adaptation of Businskas' (2008) model is presented giving the types of mathematical connections, their descriptions, and some examples.

I hope that, you will find the conceptualisations presented in these papers useful in your research or teaching, and that they bring insight to the work that you do.

The Collection editorial piece is available on the links above or on here: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/376231733_Mathematical_connections_-a_growing_construct