| Popis: |
Mature students of mathematics can readily cope with new and abstract terms if precise definitions of the terms are provided. For such students, neither the new term nor its definition needs to have any obvious connection with the real world. Most young children, on the other hand, require relatively clear associations between abstract terms and physical reality. Making these associations is the role of pedagogical models. The word model has many meanings in mathematics and elsewhere, but it is used here simply to mean an assignment of meaning to an abstraction, in familiar—frequently physical—terms. The child's model, then, is somewhat analogous to the mathematician's definition. |
