This paper focuses on the emergence of abstraction through the use of a new kind of motion detector--WiiGraph--with 11-year-old children. In the selected episodes, the children used this motion detector to create three simultaneous graphs of position vs. time: two graphs for the motion of each hand and a third one corresponding to their…

In this paper, we pursue a materialist approach to tool use to account for the material dimensions of learning mathematics with technology while decentralizing the human body from activity. We root this vision in theoretical advances on embodied mathematics learning and tool use that have been recently offered as alternatives to traditional…

This paper aims to contribute to discussions on the multimodal nature of cognition through an elaboration of the ways multimodal aspects of thinking are exploited by learners doing mathematics. Moving beyond the fact "that" multimodality occurs, this paper focuses on "how" it occurs, with particular attention drawn to the…

Starting from a situated cognition perspective, this paper reports on the activity of 9th grade students who are interpreting the shape of a graph arising from the motion of a bouncing ball. In an unfamiliar context, informed by previous knowledge of similar experiments, the obstacle of understanding why the graph does not start from the origin is…