Reducing Abstraction: The Case of School Mathematics.

There is a growing interest in the mathematics education community in the notion of abstraction and its significance in the learning of mathematics. “Reducing abstraction” is a theoretical framework that examines learners’ behavior in terms of coping with abstraction level. It refers to situations in which learners are unable to manipulate concepts presented in a given problem; therefore, they unconsciously reduce the level of abstraction of the concepts involved to make these concepts mentally accessible. This framework has been used for explaining students’ conception in different areas of undergraduate mathematics and computer science. This article extends the applicability scope of this framework from undergraduate mathematics to school mathematics. We draw on recently published research articles and exemplify how students’ behavior can be described in terms of various interpretations of reducing abstraction level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]