Students' mathematization processes in solving realistic mathematical tasks

This paper reports on a research study that aimed to analyze mathematization processes that emerged from students in solving realistic mathematical tasks. A qualitative research paradigm and a hermeneutic approach were adopted. The participants were ten volunteer students in eighth and ninth grades (13-15-year-old) from the Colombian school system. The main sources of information came from interviews, based on four realistic mathematical tasks, and on the registers of representation used by the participants. The interviews were videotaped and then transcribed to facilitate analysis. The analyzes focused on the mathematical activity that took place when the participants faced the resolution of those mathematical tasks. The findings reveal different levels of mathematization in participants such as: counting, testing, establishment of connections, identification of patterns or rules of formation, realization of pictorial and numerical representations, search for shortcuts, identification of numerical and spatial structures, argumentation, identification and classification of relevant information, generalization, identification of functional relationships, correspondence, covariation, and formalization. A practical implication of this study is that the results are inputs for the teacher's work in the classroom and for guiding mathematics teachers' education processes.