ABSTRACT
Note: Before reading this chapter on iterative videotape analyses, readers may find it useful to read the transcript that is given in the Appendix to the chapter. The transcript is one of those that is referred to in the chapter; and, many of the chapter’s main points make reference to it. In this regard, the following comments are especially relevant:
The students’ goal for this problem solving session was to produce a description of the information that was given; and, the purpose of this description was to enable the students to rank workers whose summer jobs involved selling things in a park.
The students’ initial way of thinking about the information was quite barren and distorted; that is, they neglected to notice a great deal of relevant information, and, at the same time, they made assumptions that were not valid.
To gradually arrive at a final way of thinking about the situation, the students went through a series of modeling cycles in which they interpreted givens and the goals in systematically different ways that focused on different facts, quantities, relationships, and patterns.
The researchers’ goals were to produce a description of how the students’ ways of thinking evolved during the problem solving session. Consequently, the researchers also arrived at a final interpretation of the session by going through a series of modeling cycles in which their early ways of thinking were remarkably barren and distorted compared with those that evolved later.
