ABSTRACT
Ernst Rothkopf's theory of mathemagenic activities was one of the first theories that saw the learner as central to the learning process as opposed to the curriculum or the teacher. In order to get a grip on which activities are mathemagenic and which are not, this chapter posits that we first need to describe the activities precisely and then link them to a particular learning objective in a given situation. The three categories of mathemagenic activities are orientation, acquisition, and translation and processing. While Rothkopf only had rudimentary tools to follow these activities such as respiration and intonation, researchers have more precise ways to map out learning activities and thus see which activities are mathemagenic and which are not. Rothkopf focuses the learning process in his theory by looking at which learning and thinking activities the learner must undertake to learn from the offered subject matter.
