Trends in Research on Mathematical Representation in Mathematics Learning: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

Mathematical representation is one of the skills that students need to master because it can help them in various problem-solving tasks. This research is a literature review of articles related to mathematical representation in mathematics education. The articles are those published in journals indexed by Scopus from 2020 to 2024. The results of this study indicate that there has been an increase in the number of studies on mathematical representation in mathematics education from 2023 to 2024, with qualitative research being the most commonly used design. Test sheets are also frequently used to measure mathematical representation, while this area of research is largely focused on the social sciences. The United States has become the country with the highest number of studies related to mathematical representation in mathematics education over the past four years, with frequently appearing keywords being teachers and students, in addition to students being the most involved participants. Based on these findings, several recommendations for future research are proposed, namely the increased frequency of classroom action research to investigate the ability of mathematical representation in learning is highly necessary, as well as the development and collaboration of research instruments, such as combining test sheets with observation instruments to observe students' processes in using mathematical representation when solving problems or understanding mathematical concepts.