This volume grew out of a symposium on discourse, tools and instructional design at Vanderbilt University in 1995 that has brought together a small international group to grapple with issues of communicating, symbolizing, modelling and mathematizing, particularly as these issues relate to learning in the classroom. The participants invited to develop chapters for this book - all internationally recognized scholars in their respective fields - were selected to represent a wide range of theoretical perspectives including mathematics education, cognitive science, sociocultural theory and...

This volume grew out of a symposium on discourse, tools and instructional design at Vanderbilt University in 1995 that has brought together a small international group to grapple with issues of communicating, symbolizing, modelling and mathematizing, particularly as these issues relate to learning in the classroom. The participants invited to develop chapters for this book - all internationally recognized scholars in their respective fields - were selected to represent a wide range of theoretical perspectives including mathematics education, cognitive science, sociocultural theory and...

Houma is a name derived from a tribe of Native Americans who settled in what is now Terrebonne Parish, or "Good Earth." The town's residents come from French, German, Italian, Scotch, and English ancestry; this mix makes for an interesting cross-section of cultures in a charming Louisiana community. Fifty miles southwest of New Orleans and easily accessible from U.S. Highway 90-"The Old Spanish Trail"-Houma is also bisected by the Intracoastal Waterway. It has been dubbed the "Venice of North America," because it is the epicenter of six bayous, all of which were at one time tributaries of the...