Activate students? Let them fold! Mathematical paper folding in secondary education in France and Germany

Abstract

Though the potential of mathematical paper folding for learning mathematics is known, this practice is still rare in mathematics classes. To inform the design of mathematics lessons enriched with folding, we investigated via a literature review what mathematical paper folding is done in secondary education and why. The research question that we explore in this paper is: What reasons do teachers from France and Germany report for implementing mathematical folding activities in authentic classroom situations? Through a grounded theory approach, we found reasons like: ‘to activate students by letting them manipulate paper’ and ‘to visualise mathematics’. Teachers state that folding allows for dynamic representations that support the transition from informal to formal mathematics and the practice of skills. We summarise these findings in two major categories of reasons: 'to activate students by providing folding tasks’ and ‘to grow mathematical understanding by folding’.