TY - CHAP

T1 - Using qualitative and quantitative arguments in decision-making situations

AU - Hagena, Maike

AU - Besser, Michael

AU - Schlüter, Dominik

AU - Leiss, Dominik

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2025.

PY - 2025

Y1 - 2025

N2 - Twenty-first century skills are said being key skills for preparing students for later life. A central element of these key skills is critical thinking, which comprises using qualitative and quantitative arguments in so called decision-making situations in real life. The present chapter outlines an empirical study aiming at supporting students in building up critical thinking by fostering the ability to use qualitative and quantitative arguments when solving modelling problems (as reperesentations of real-life decision-making situations) in mathematics education. 420 students from German middle-school classes took part in the intervention study. Results point out that working on decision-making situations by using mathematical modelling can change the students’ way of using arguments and making decisions, but making informed decisions is challenging students in general.

AB - Twenty-first century skills are said being key skills for preparing students for later life. A central element of these key skills is critical thinking, which comprises using qualitative and quantitative arguments in so called decision-making situations in real life. The present chapter outlines an empirical study aiming at supporting students in building up critical thinking by fostering the ability to use qualitative and quantitative arguments when solving modelling problems (as reperesentations of real-life decision-making situations) in mathematics education. 420 students from German middle-school classes took part in the intervention study. Results point out that working on decision-making situations by using mathematical modelling can change the students’ way of using arguments and making decisions, but making informed decisions is challenging students in general.

KW - Decision making

KW - Integrated training

KW - Intervention study

KW - Mathematical modelling

KW - Qualitative and quantitative arguments

KW - Separated training

KW - Mathematics

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=105013788875&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1007/978-3-031-53533-8_8

DO - 10.1007/978-3-031-53533-8_8

M3 - Contributions to collected editions/anthologies

SN - 978-3-031-53532-1

SN - 978-3-031-53535-2

T3 - International Perspectives on the Teaching and Learning of Mathematical Modelling

SP - 125

EP - 135

BT - International Horizons in Mathematics Modelling Education

A2 - Ikeda, Toshikazu

A2 - Saeki, Akihiko

A2 - Geiger, Vince

A2 - Kaiser, Gabriele

PB - Springer International Publishing

CY - Cham

ER -