“Conflict of Goals” as a Barrier for Effective Use of Visual Models in Primary Math Education

Abstract

The formation of the ability to solve non-trivial life problems is one of the tasks of school education in the context of achieving sustainable development goals. In the process of teaching mathematics, one of the most effective ways to find solutions to problems is modelling – a teaching method that not only helps students to consciously assimilate mathematical content, but also forms the basis for selfstudy throughout life. Visual models, which reflect the essential characteristics of mathematical concepts by pictorial means, play a special role in the process of initial teaching of mathematics. Teachers can use active and passive techniques for working with visual models in mathematics lessons, which differ in the degree of children’s participation in building a visual model. The main goal of this article is to identify which techniques teachers prefer working with visual models in practice in mathematics lessons. To achieve this goal, the questionnaire method, the multi-criteria assessment method, and the moderation method were applied. This article presents the results of a study devoted to identifying teachers’ preferred methods of working with visual models when conducting mathematics lessons, identifying their theoretical ideas about the value of each group of techniques, as well as establishing the reasons for the revealed discrepancy between the practical preferences of teachers and their theoretical ideas.