Exploring Israeli High School Graduates' Explanations for the Spread of the Coronavirus

Autor/inn/en	Rotem, Sigal-Hava; Ayalon, Michal
Titel	Exploring Israeli High School Graduates' Explanations for the Spread of the Coronavirus
Quelle	In: Educational Studies in Mathematics, 108 (2021) 1-2, S.161-181 (21 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Rotem, Sigal-Hava) ORCID (Ayalon, Michal)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0013-1954
DOI	10.1007/s10649-021-10042-3
Schlagwörter	Foreign Countries; High School Graduates; Epidemiology; Probability; COVID-19; Pandemics; Mathematics Skills; Majors (Students); Speeches; Public Officials; Geometric Concepts; Visual Aids; Statistics; Mathematical Concepts; Israel + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Ausland; High school; High schools; Graduate; Graduates; Oberschule; Absolvent; Absolventin; Epidemiologie; Wahrscheinlichkeitsrechnung; Wahrscheinlichkeitstheorie; Mathmatics achievement; Mathematics ability; Mathematische Kompetenz; Elementare Geometrie; Anschauungsmaterial; Statistik
Abstract	The aim of this study is to explore Israeli high school graduates' mathematical explanations for the spread of the coronavirus, given that the mathematics required to do so was part of their school curriculum. An online questionnaire consisting of two sections provided a variety of potential framings for explaining the phenomenon. The first section invited the participants to explain the spread of the coronavirus in terms of their school majors in general, with no specific reference to mathematics. The second section asked explicitly to explain the mathematical context underlying the phenomenon. In this section, the participants were asked to discuss the Prime Minister's speech given in the media a few weeks earlier, in which he described the spread of the coronavirus as a geometric series. Data analysis of 87 participants' responses to the questionnaire revealed 11 different mathematical ideas used to explain the spread of the coronavirus. These ideas included are as follows: doubling, sequence, exponential growth, using powers, tree diagram, recursion, fast-growing rate with covariation, probability, parabola and quadratic function, acceleration, and factorial. It was also found that the second section of the questionnaire elicited a wider range of mathematical ideas than the first one. We suggest possible explanations for the emergence of the mathematical ideas, which seem to reflect the graduates' intuitive knowledge, influenced not only by their mathematics track level but also by their chosen high school majors. Possible implications are discussed. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01