A "representation", at its simplest level, is defined in the Oxford Dictionary as "a thing that represents another". Springing from a course I attended where we looked at mathematical representation, here I look at an example discussed during the course and consider the difficulties I had in understanding it. Finally, I will look at children's use of representations in the reception classroom, both spontaneous and teacher suggested.
Graphs as a representation
I am comfortable with plotting graphs and enjoy thinking through how I might represent information graphically. The first example relates to buying Pritt sticks, where the price for each stick gradually reduces as you purchase larger quantities. When plotting the graph I had to ask myself questions such as, "Do I need to join the points I have plotted for the number of Pritt Sticks I can buy against the cost?" "What do joined points represent?" "Does this have any meaning in this case since I am unable to buy half a Pritt Stick?" etc. (see table 1 and figure 1).