Abstract

The aim of this master’s thesis is to investigation the use of visualization in teaching mathematics and how visualization possibly relates to understanding in mathematics. The investigation is conducted with an explorative approach. The thesis consists of a theoretical part and an empirical part. The theoretical part explores existing theories about understanding and visualization in mathematics. The empirical part uses qualitative methods to investigate how mathematics teachers in upper secondary education uses visualization in their teaching and their thoughts about visualization and its role in understanding. Different types of visulization as well as different purposes of using visualization are identified. It is concluded that the teachers use a wide range of types of visualisation with different purposes and that both types of visualization and their purposes vary amongst the teachers. The teachers thoughts on understanding in mathematics and its connection to visualization also show many different condsiderations. It is found that the teacher’s thought about both visualization and understanding aligns with the theory in some places, but also go beyond what as presented in the litterature. The thesis furthermore contains suggestions for further investigations into the area of visualization in teaching mathematics.