Proceedings of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education · Volume 1
Jon Dewayne Davis
Western Michigan University
⬇ Download PDFThis study investigates the visibility and conceptualization of sense-making in PME proceedings (1978–2025). Proceedings were converted to searchable text as needed and searched for sense making and sense-making; papers were included when the term appeared outside references and paratext, yielding 277 papers (first occurrence: 1990). Visibility was coded by section (Title–Conclusion) using binary presence/absence indicators, and conceptual specificity was coded by type (e.g., implied definition). Most papers used the term in one section (mean = 1.43). Implied definitions predominated (N=158), sense-making appeared without a definition in 97 papers, while explicit definitions (N=15) and definitions with operationalization (N=8) were rare. Implied and explicit definitions were examined for their thematic content.
sense-makingresearch trendshistorical perspectives