From notable occurrences to situated abstractions: a window for analysing learners’ thinking-in-change in a microworld

This paper introduces an analytic framework developed to shed light on how activity in a computer-based microworld can foster the development of instrumented action schemes that support the construction of mathematical meanings. The framework is derived from the ideas of “scenario in use” and trajectories of evolving meaning, (Trouche, 2003; Hoyles et al., 2004), and is used to track key points where the design of a microworld can be shown to shape students’ interactions and their development of situated meanings. To exemplify the proposed framework, we report its application to students’ activity in eXpresser, a microworld designed to support the development of the notion of variable through activities that involve building and colouring figural patterns. We note how the use of the framework helped to highlight aspects of students’ thinking-in-change while interacting with eXpresser, thus making the trajectories more visible and thus more easily compared to one another and to ‘intended schemes’.