INTEGER OPERATIONS IN THE PRIMARY SCHOOL: A SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS OF A “FACTUAL GENERALIZATION”

This study attempts to better understand how children learn integer operations after the ‘dice games ’ approach of Linchevski & Williams, through Radford’s semiotic analyses of the means of objectification. In this paper we analyse of pilot study data from an ongoing research. Following a short review of Radford’s account of the semiotic processes, it is argued that in the dice games approach factual generalization can be analysed as a three stage semiotic process of reification. Hence, connections between Sfard’s theory of reification and Radford’s semiotic analyses of the means are made