A networking method to compare theories: metacognition in problem solving reformulated within the Anthropological Theory of the Didactic

• Published in: ZDM Vol. 40; no. 2; pp. 287 - 301
• Main Authors: Rodríguez, Esther, Bosch, Marianna, Gascón, Josep
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer-Verlag 01.05.2008; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Cognition & reasoning; Dialectics; Didacticism; Education; Educational Research; Empirical analysis; Learning; Learning Processes; Mathematical problems; Mathematics; Mathematics Education; Metacognition; Original Article; Problem solving; Questions; Students; Teaching Methods; Mathematical Activity; Didactic Contract; Metacognitive Strategy; Mathematics Education; Study Process
• ISSN: 1863-9690; 1863-9704
• DOI: 10.1007/s11858-008-0094-z

An important role of theory in research is to provide new ways of conceptualizing practical questions, essentially by transforming them into scientific problems that can be more easily delimited, typified and approached. In mathematics education, theoretical developments around ‘metacognition’ initially appeared in the research domain of Problem Solving closely related to the practical question of how to learn (and teach) to solve non-routine problems. This paper presents a networking method to approach a notion as ‘metacognition’ within a different theoretical perspective, as the one provided by the Anthropological Theory of the Didactic. Instead of trying to directly ‘translate’ this notion from one perspective to another, the strategy used consists in going back to the practical question that is at the origin of ‘metacognition’ and show how the new perspective relates this initial question to a very different kind of phenomena. The analysis is supported by an empirical study focused on a teaching proposal in grade 10 concerning the problem of comparing mobile phone tariffs.