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Mathematical Modelling in Education Research and Practice pp 67–79Cite as

Prescriptive Modelling – Challenges and Opportunities

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Abstract

This chapter deals with a distinction between two kinds of mathematical modelling purposes and related modelling endeavours, descriptive modelling and prescriptive modelling. Whilst descriptive modelling is usually the focus of attention of practice, research and development in mathematics education, prescriptive modelling – in which the aim is to design, organise or structure certain aspects of extra-mathematical domains – is hardly noticed, let alone investigated in mathematics education. After having presented three concrete examples of prescriptive modelling, this chapter makes a plea for paying attention to its cultivation and investigation in mathematics education contexts. It does so by analysing prescriptive modelling in relation to the so-called modelling cycle and finishes by outlining challenges and opportunities for such an endeavour.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    In Blum and Niss (1991, p. 39), the authors spoke about descriptive models rather than descriptive modelling, and also about normative models (not prescriptive models). Thus, the terms proposed in the present chapter represent a move from focusing on the product (the model) to focusing on the modelling purposes, whilst replacing ‘normative’ with ‘prescriptive’, following Davis (1991).

References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. IMFUFA, Department of Science, Roskilde University, Universitetsvej 1, Roskilde, DK, 4000, Denmark

    Mogens Niss

Authors
  1. Mogens Niss
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Correspondence to Mogens Niss .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Mathematics Education, Australian Catholic University, Ballarat, Victoria, Australia

    Gloria Ann Stillman

  2. University of Kassel, Kassel, Germany

    Werner Blum

  3. Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul - PUCRS, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

    Maria Salett Biembengut

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Niss, M. (2015). Prescriptive Modelling – Challenges and Opportunities. In: Stillman, G., Blum, W., Salett Biembengut, M. (eds) Mathematical Modelling in Education Research and Practice. International Perspectives on the Teaching and Learning of Mathematical Modelling. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-18272-8_5

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