2021 Research in Undergraduate Mathematics Education Reports
2021
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Bridging-Course Students Extract Square Roots: Commognitive Account of Seeming Conflicts Within Students’ Discourses
Page: 164
This study explored the grasp of square roots among 11 students in a bridging course, with a special focus on instances where the same student generated seemingly conflicting responses. Building on the commognitive framework, the analysis indicated that individual students square-rooted differently in a range of situations, such as cases where roots were extracted from square numbers and from squared radicands, where roots “stood alone” and where they were incorporated in an exercise. Differences were found in the procedures that students employed and the tasks that they pursued. A theoretical account was offered, suggesting that what may appear as a conflict within a student’s discourse could be a sensible difference of actions taken in task situations that this student construed as incompatible.