The Role of Preservice Teachers’ Quantitative and Covariational Reasoning in Understanding Climate Change

Abstract

This article analyzes how three mathematics preservice teachers (PSTs) reasoned quantitatively and covariationally while making sense of the Earth’s energy budget (EB)—a model of energy circulation within the Earth’s climate system—and discusses how their quantitative and covariational reasonings influenced their understanding of climate change. The PSTs completed the EB task during an individual, task-based interview; the task explored two concepts that are key to understanding climate change: The Earth’s EB and the link between carbon dioxide (CO₂) pollution and global warming. The results showed that quantitative and covariational reasoning played an important role in shaping the PSTs’ understanding of climate change, extending the usefulness of these theories from the mathematics education domain to the science education domain. More specifically, when these two types of reasoning supported the realizations of an EB with multiple equilibriums and an increase in global temperature as a response to increasing CO₂ levels, the PSTs could describe and model why CO₂ pollution causes global warming. Conversely, if their reasoning did not support those two realizations, then they develop misconceptions about the EB and global warming. The results suggest that strengthening quantitative and covariational reasoning in connection to climate change can prepare mathematics and science teachers to teach it.

Acknowledgments

The author would like to extend his gratitude to the reviewers and the editors of the journal.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The air in the atmosphere is a mixture of several gases such as nitrogen (78.09%), oxygen (20.95%), argon (0.93%), carbon dioxide (0.04%), and small amounts of other gases.

2 The Earth’s albedo is a measure of the reflectivity of the planet’s surface. For instance, ice- or snow-covered surfaces have high albedo because the reflect most of the solar energy they received, while dark surfaces such as the oceans possess low albedo and absorb most of the solar energy they receive.