Pirie-Kieren Theory Research Articles

Folding back and the dynamical growth of mathematical understanding: Elaborating the Pirie–Kieren Theory

The study reported here extends the work of Pirie and Kieren on the nature and growth of mathematical understanding. The research examines in detail a key aspect of their theory, the process of ‘folding back’, and develops a theoretical framework of categories and sub-categories that more fully describe the phenomenon. This paper presents an overview of this ‘framework for folding back’, illustrates it with extracts of video data and elaborates on its key features. The paper also considers the implications of the study for the teaching and learning of mathematics, and for future research in the field.

Making images and noticing properties: The role of graphing software in mathematical generalisation

This paper discusses the growth of mathematical understanding of two students, Graham and Don, as they use a computer graphing program to explore the properties of quadratic equations. Through analysing extracts of video data using the Pirie-Kieren theory, we discuss the ways in which the mathematical understanding of the students grows and how their interactions occasion, facilitate, and restrict this. We consider four ‘clips’ of their mathematical working, highlighting different aspects of their developing understanding, and use of the graphing software. Although we are talking about a computer based graphing package, our conclusions are equally relevant to the use of graphing calculators.