Writing in Mathematics: A Synthesis of Evaluations, Interventions, and Surveys

Abstract

The national mathematics standards in the United States focus a large amount of emphasis on the function communication plays as a component of mathematical thinking. This is because communication is essential to mathematical reasoning. Writing is one of the many ways people communicate; other means include talking and texting. We did a synthesis in order to analyze the empirical research that has been done on the subject of mathematics in order to get a better knowledge of how students write about mathematics. This was done to better understand how students approach the subject. We discovered 29 studies that included a mathematics-writing evaluation, intervention, or survey for children in the first through twelfth grades. This research was conducted in a variety of different countries. These studies were carried out in a diverse selection of nations worldwide. They were involved in the inquiry in some capacity. Between the years 1991 and 2015, the results of the full study project were initially published for the first time in textual format in academic journals. Although most of the math problems required the students to provide written explanations, less than half of the evaluations used a rubric to rate the solutions provided by the students. Even though the vast majority of the issues required written explanations, they were nonetheless completed. More than half of the therapies mentioned the practice of publishing mathematical material in mathematics journals. This was mentioned in just over half of the treatments. Even fewer clinical studies provided quantitative data on the medicines being explored and their level of success. There are not many intervention studies that directly teach children how to write mathematical expressions, but those that do exist are few. The survey results showed that the vast majority of professors claimed that they only occasionally use mathematical writing in their lectures, even though most students claimed that they enjoy writing about mathematics. However, the overall quality of the studies varies, indicating the need for further empirical research; the findings of a number of studies indicate the potential that mathematical writing serves more than one purpose.