abstract
- A key distinction among traditions in modelling research is whether modelling is primarily viewed as a curricular topic to be learned or as a propitious context for supporting and studying mathematical thinking. For modelling-as-context traditions, modelling tasks can be designed to illuminate student thinking; to position groups of students as inventive creators of mathematics; or to spur them to engage in forms of mathematising that are valued in the discipline of mathematics. In this chapter, we argue that whole-class presentations of solutions to modelling tasks can be particularly rich settings for such research. We focus on how presentation sessions offer opportunities to engage in reflective discourse, in which the class can convert modelling actions that various student teams have engaged in into objects of collective discussion. We analyse three episodes of reflective discourse from a mathematical modelling Summer Camp for students aged 10¿13 (n = 21). For each, we describe the specific mathematical value of reflective discourse as it emerged in context.