Cognitive flexibility enhances mathematical reasoning

A team from the University of Geneva shows that using different points of view on a problem helps improve students'proportional reasoning. Multiple categorization involves presenting students with mathematical problems that can be solved from different perspectives. Calliste Scheibling-Sève - At school or in everyday life, proportional reasoning is essential for many activities. This type of reasoning allows us to adapt the quantity of ingredients in a recipe or to calculate the distance travelled as a function of speed by relying on ratios and proportions. In school settings, certain intuitive conceptions of proportions can mislead students and hinder their learning. A team from the University of Geneva shows that multiple categorization in mathematical problems - the ability to adopt several points of view on the same problem - makes it possible to go past this obstacle. These results open up new perspectives for the learning of mathematics but also for other disciplines.