@article{6b7d2f33a10b485d8af28c3a86d942e4,
title = "Modeling conceptions revisited",
abstract = "The previous issue of ZDM raised several fundamental issues on the role of modeling in the school curricula at micro and macro levels In this paper we complement the approaches described there by discussing some of the issues and the barriers to the implementation of mathematical modeling in school curricula raised there from the perspective of the on going work of the models and modeling research group. In doing so we stress the need for critical literacy as well as the need to initiate a new research agenda based on the fact that we are now living in a fundamentally different world in which reality is characterized by complex systems. This may very well require us to go beyond conventional notions of modeling.",
author = "Bharath Sriraman and Richard Lesh",
note = "Funding Information: In comparison to the school curricula in the U.S in the 1950{\textquoteright}s and 60{\textquoteright}s, many contemporary reform based curricula are incorporating a data driven modeling approach to the teaching of mathematics in which context plays an important role in getting students interested in the material. Two recent examples of NSF funded high school curricula which make use of this approach are the Core Plus Mathematics Project (CPMP), and the Systemic Initiative for Montana Mathematics and Science (SIMMS). A data driven modeling approach has also been incorporated into middle school curricula (see various examples in Senk & Thompson, 2003). Although the situation is encouraging in comparison to the status quo of previous decades, authentic modeling based curricula like SIMMS have been difficult to implement at a macro level due to the various reasons, namely systemic inertia, professional development constraints and general societal resistance to a curriculum which goes against popular conceptions of what constitutes school mathematics (Burkhardt, 2006) Funding Information: While the aesthetic nature of mathematics remains a mutually agreeable focal point for both pure and applied mathematicians, the question of what type of mathematics should be part of the school curriculum remains a contentious issue. Given the changing nature of mathematics used in emergent professions, recent initiatives to emphasize the applied nature of mathematics are more than important. Steen (2001) argued that in spite of the rich and antiquated roots of mathematics, mathematicians among others should acknowledge the contributions of researchers in external disciplines like biology, engineering, finance, information sciences, economics, education, medicine etc who successfully adapt mathematics to create models and tool kits with far reaching and profound applications in today{\textquoteright}s world. These interdisciplinary and emergent applications have resulted in the field of mathematics thriving at the dawn of the 21st century. We prefer to use the term “design scientists” for such researchers and “design science” for such research. In the U.S the urgency of preparing today{\textquoteright}s students adequately for future oriented design science fields is increasingly being emphasized at the university level. More recently, Steen (2005) wrote that “as a science biology depends increasingly on data, algorithms and models; in virtually every respect it is becoming… more mathematical” (xi). Both the National Research Council (NRC) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) in the U.S is increasingly funding universities to initiate inter-disciplinary doctoral programs between mathematics and the other sciences with the goal of producing design scientists adept at using mathematical modeling in interdisciplinary fields. Yet many institutions in the U.S are finding it difficult to recruit students capable of graduate level work in interdisciplinary fields such as mathematical biology and bio-informatics. This suggests that undergraduates feel under prepared to pursue careers in these emerging fields. Any educator with a sense of history foresees the snowball effect or the cycle of blaming inadequate preparation to high school onto middle school onto the very elementary grades, which suggests we work bottom up.",
year = "2006",
doi = "10.1007/BF02652808",
language = "English",
volume = "38",
pages = "247--254",
journal = "ZDM - International Journal on Mathematics Education",
issn = "1863-9690",
publisher = "Springer Verlag",
number = "3",
}