Accession Number: EJ1152737; Acquisition Information: Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia. GPO Box 2747, Adelaide SA 5001, Australia. Tel: +61-8-8363-0288; Fax: +61-8-8362-9288; e-mail: mted@merga.net.au; Web site: http://www.merga.net.au/; Language: English; Education Level: Elementary Education; Level of Availability: Available online; Publication Type: Academic Journal; Publication Type: Report; Entry Date: 2017
KW - Mathematics Instruction KW - Teacher Attitudes KW - Australia KW - Elementary School Teachers KW - Foreign Countries KW - Teaching Methods KW - Elementary School Mathematics KW - Quasiexperimental Design ER - TY - JOUR TI - Launching a Discourse-Rich Mathematics Lesson AU - Trocki, Aaron AU - Taylor, Christine AU - Starling, Tina AU - Sztajn, Paola AU - Heck, Daniel T2 - Teaching Children Mathematics AB - The idea of elementary school students working together on mathematical tasks is not new, but recent attention to creating purposeful discourse in mathematics classrooms prompts teachers to revisit discourse-promoting strategies for mathematics lessons. The Common Core's Standards for Mathematical Practice (CCSSI 2010) encourage teachers to foster opportunities for students to make conjectures, analyze situations, and create and argue solutions with one another. The type of purposeful discourse that promotes these behaviors supports the development of students' conceptual understanding (NRC 2001) around high cognitive-demand tasks (Smith and Stein 1998). However, facilitating this type of discourse is no easy feat. How can teachers implement a lesson that promotes purposeful mathematical discourse? In this article, the authors focus on the beginning of a lesson that is organized around a high-demand task; that is, they focus on the launch phase of the lesson, when the teacher is getting students ready to work on the task. DA - 2014/12/01/ PY - 2014 DO - 10.5951/teacchilmath.21.5.0276 DP - EBSCOhost VL - 21 IS - 5 SP - 277 EP - 281 J2 - Teaching Children Mathematics SN - 1073-5836 UR - https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ1047760&scope=site AN - National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. 1906 Association Drive, Reston, VA 20191-1502. Tel: 800-235-7566; Tel: 703-620-3702; Fax: 703-476-2970; e-mail: orders@nctm.org; Web site: http://www.nctm.org/publications/ DB - ERIC N1 -Accession Number: EJ1047760; Intended Audience: Teachers; Acquisition Information: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. 1906 Association Drive, Reston, VA 20191-1502. Tel: 800-235-7566; Tel: 703-620-3702; Fax: 703-476-2970; e-mail: orders@nctm.org; Web site: http://www.nctm.org/publications/; Language: English; Education Level: Elementary Education; Level of Availability: Not available from ERIC; Publication Type: Academic Journal; Publication Type: Report; Entry Date: 2014
KW - Academic Standards KW - Mathematical Logic KW - Mathematics Instruction KW - Lesson Plans KW - Teaching Methods KW - Elementary School Mathematics KW - Discussion (Teaching Technique) KW - Concept Formation KW - Protocol Analysis ER - TY - JOUR TI - Orchestrating Productive Mathematical Discussions: Five Practices for Helping Teachers Move Beyond Show and Tell AU - Stein, Mary Kay AU - Engle, Randi A. AU - Smith, Margaret S. AU - Hughes, Elizabeth K. T2 - Mathematical Thinking and Learning AB - Teachers who attempt to use inquiry-based, student-centered instructional tasks face challenges that go beyond identifying well-designed tasks and setting them up appropriately in the classroom. Because solution paths are usually not specified for these kinds of tasks, students tend to approach them in unique and sometimes unanticipated ways. Teachers must not only strive to understand how students are making sense of the task but also begin to align students' disparate ideas and approaches with canonical understandings about the nature of mathematics. Research suggests that this is difficult for most teachers (Ball, 1993, 2001; Leinhardt Schoenfeld, 1998; Sherin, 2002). In this article, we present a pedagogical model that specifies five key practices teachers can learn to use student responses to such tasks more effectively in discussions: anticipating, monitoring, selecting, sequencing, and making connections between student responses. We first define each practice, showing how a typical discussion based on a cognitively challenging task could be improved through their use. We then explain how the five practices embody current theory about how to support students' productive disciplinary engagement. Finally, we close by discussing how these practices can make discussion-based pedagogy manageable for more teachers. DA - 2008/10/27/ PY - 2008 DO - 10.1080/10986060802229675 VL - 10 IS - 4 SP - 313 EP - 340 J2 - Mathematical Thinking and Learning SN - 1098-6065 UR - https://doi.org/10.1080/10986060802229675 N1 -doi: 10.1080/10986060802229675
ER - TY - JOUR TI - Work in mathematics classes: The context of students' thinking during instruction AU - Doyle, Walter T2 - Educational psychologist AB - The research program described in this article has focused on the work students do in classrooms and how that work influences students' thinking about content. The research is based on the premise that the tasks teachers assign determines how students come to understand a curriculum domain. Tasks serve, in other words, as a context for students' thinking during and after instruction. The first section of this article contains an overview of the task model that guided research. The second section provides a summary of findings concerning the properties of students' work in classrooms, with special attention to work in mathematics classes. I conclude with a brief discussion of implications of this research for understanding classroom processes and their effects. DA - 1988/// PY - 1988 DO - 10.1207/s15326985ep23026 VL - 23 IS - 2 SP - 167 EP - 180 ER - TY - JOUR TI - Exploring relationships between setting up complex tasks and opportunities to learn in concluding whole-class discussions in middle-grades mathematics instruction AU - Jackson, Kara AU - Garrison, Anne AU - Wilson, Jonee AU - Gibbons, Lynsey AU - Shahan, Emily T2 - Journal for Research in Mathematics Education AB - This article specifies how the setup, or introduction, of cognitively demanding tasks is a crucial phase of middle-grades mathematics instruction. We report on an empirical study of 165 middle-grades mathematics teachers’ instruction that focused on how they introduced tasks and the relationship between how they introduced tasks and the nature of students’ opportunities to learn mathematics in the concluding whole-class discussion. Findings suggest that in lessons in which (a) the setup supported students to develop common language to describe contextual features and mathematical relationships specific to the task and (b) the cognitive demand of the task was maintained in the setup, concluding whole-class discussions were characterized by higher quality opportunities to learn. DA - 2013/// PY - 2013 DO - 10.5951/jresematheduc.44.4.0646 VL - 44 IS - 4 SP - 646 EP - 682 ER - TY - JOUR TI - Unpacking teacher challenges in understanding and implementing cognitively demanding tasks in secondary school mathematics classrooms AU - Monarrez, Angelica AU - Tchoshanov, Mourat T2 - International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology AB - Literature suggests that students need to be exposed to cognitively demanding tasks (CDT). In this qualitative study, we examined in-service secondary school teachers’ challenges in understanding (e.g. recognizing, solving, and designing) and implementing cognitively demanding tasks in mathematics classrooms. Purposive sampling consisted of eleven teachers who completed the cognitive demand survey. Qualitative data sources included semi-structured interviews and classroom observations. Data analysis consisted of open and focused coding based on which the following main challenges were reported: challenges related to students’ knowledge, challenges related to English language learners (ELL), challenges related to teachers’ knowledge, and challenges related to curriculum. The study results suggest that teachers may need a support system built to address the challenges and to assist in implementing CDT in their classrooms. DA - 2022/// PY - 2022 DO - 10.1080/0020739X.2020.1857860 VL - 53 IS - 8 SP - 2026 EP - 2045 ER - TY - JOUR TI - Instructional tasks and the development of student capacity to think and reason: An analysis of the relationship between teaching and learning in a reform mathematics project AU - Stein, Mary Kay AU - Lane, Suzanne T2 - Educational Research and Evaluation AB - In the present study the relationship between teaching and learning was examined using a conceptual framework that links dimensions of instructional tasks with gains in student learning outcomes. The greatest student gains on a performance assessment consisting of tasks that require high levels of mathematical thinking and reasoning were related to the use of instructional tasks that engaged students in the"doing of mathematics" or the use of procedures with connections to meaning. In addition, student performance gains were greater for those sites whose tasks were both set up and implemented to encourage the use of multiple solution strategies, multiple representations, and explanations. Whereas, student performance gains were relatively small for those sites whose tasks tended to be both set up and implemented in a procedural manner and that required a single solution strategy, single representations, and little or no mathematical communication. DA - 1996/// PY - 1996 DO - https://doi.org/10.1080/1380361960020103 VL - 2 IS - 1 SP - 50 EP - 80 ER - TY - JOUR TI - Building student capacity for mathematical thinking and reasoning: An analysis of mathematical tasks used in reform classrooms AU - Stein, Mary Kay AU - Grover, Barbara W. AU - Henningsen, Marjorie T2 - American educational research journal AB - This article focuses on mathematical tasks as important vehicles for building student capacity for mathematical thinking and reasoning. A stratified random sample of 144 mathematical tasks used during reform-oriented instruction was analyzed in terms of (a) task features (number of solution strategies, number and kind of representations, and communication requirements) and (b) cognitive demands (e.g., memorization, the use of procedures with [and without] connections to concepts, the "doing of mathematics"). The findings suggest that teachers were selecting and setting up the kinds of tasks that reformers argue should lead to the development of students' thinking capacities. During task implementation, the task features tended to remain consistent with how they were set up, but the cognitive demands of high-level tasks had a tendency to decline. The ways in which high-level tasks declined as well as factors associated with task changes from the set-up to implementation phase were explored. DA - 1996/// PY - 1996 DO - 10.3102/00028312033002455 VL - 33 IS - 2 SP - 455 EP - 488 ER - TY - JOUR TI - Mathematics teachers' enactment of cognitively demanding tasks: Investigating links to teachers' knowledge and conceptions AU - Wilhelm, Anne Garrison T2 - Journal for Research in Mathematics Education AB - This study sought to understand how aspects of middle school mathematics teachers’ knowledge and conceptions are related to their enactment of cognitively demanding tasks. I defined the enactment of cognitively demanding tasks to involve task selection and maintenance of the cognitive demand of high-level tasks and examined those two dimensions of enactment separately. I used multilevel logistic regression models to investigate how mathematical knowledge for teaching and conceptions of teaching and learning mathematics for 213 middle school mathematics teachers were related to their enactment of cognitively demanding tasks. I found that teachers’ mathematical knowledge for teaching and conceptions of teaching and learning mathematics were contingent on one another and significantly related to teachers’ enactment of cognitively demanding tasks. DA - 2014/// PY - 2014 DO - 10.5951/jresematheduc.45.5.0636 VL - 45 IS - 5 SP - 636 EP - 674 ER - TY - BOOK TI - Teaching and Development. A Soviet Investigation. AU - Zankov, Leonid V. CY - White Plains, New York DA - 1977/// PY - 1977 LA - Engelsk PB - M.E. Sharpe SN - 0-87332-109-X ER - TY - CHAP TI - A Review of the Mathematical Tasks Framework and Levels of Cognitive Demand AU - Hsu, Hui-Yu AU - Yao, Chen-Yu T2 - Research Studies on Learning and Teaching of Mathematics: Dedicated to Edward A. Silver A2 - Cai, Jinfa A2 - Stylianides, Gabriel J. A2 - Kenney, Patricia Ann AB - Over the past few decades, the impact of mathematical instructional tasks on student learning has been recognized and studied. Mary Kay Stein and a group of colleagues, including Edward Silver, proposed an analytical scheme known as the Mathematical Tasks Framework (MTF). They also identified the levels of cognitive demand specific to mathematical instructional tasks. The MTF presents the critical phases that describe the progression of mathematical tasks in classroom teaching and their influence on student learning outcomes. The levels of cognitive demand function as a theoretical lens to examine mathematical instructional tasks through different phases. In this chapter, we first introduce the MTF and the levels of cognitive demand. We then review literature developed based on the MTF or the levels of cognitive demand. The review shows three main trends, including research on instruction, research on teacher learning, and research on textbook analysis. Discussions and reflections on the review are also presented. CY - Cham DA - 2023/// PY - 2023 SP - 219 EP - 252 PB - Springer International Publishing SN - 978-3-031-35459-5 UR - https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35459-5_10 ER - TY - JOUR TI - Questioning techniques: A study of instructional practice AU - Buchanan Hill, Joan T2 - Peabody Journal of Education AB - To what extent do teachers use questions to encourage deeper thinking and elicit fuller responses? How do teachers use the levels of questions and wait time as a teaching technique? How do teachers make space for students to talk together so that their thoughts are visible to other students? This article seeks to provide answers to these important questions through a review of the literature that begins with a study of the history of questioning, and then turns to the following topics: developing higher level thinking through questioning strategies; the role of wait time within the context of classroom climate and peer interactions; and higher order questioning strategies aligned with student achievement in reading and language arts. Although the author’s frame of reference for how these issues play out is within the context of a school where students’ ability to articulate understanding and their own point of view is purposefully promoted and highly valued, the insights will have broad applicability across a full spectrum of schools. DA - 2016/10/19/ PY - 2016 DO - 10.1080/0161956X.2016.1227190 VL - 91 IS - 5 SP - 660 EP - 671 J2 - Peabody Journal of Education SN - 0161-956X UR - https://doi.org/10.1080/0161956X.2016.1227190 N1 -doi: 10.1080/0161956X.2016.1227190
ER - TY - JOUR TI - Relations of instructional tasks to teacher–student discourse in mathematics classrooms of Chinese primary schools AU - Ni, Yujing AU - Zhou, Dehui AU - Li, Xiaoqing AU - Li, Qiong T2 - Cognition and Instruction AB - This study, based on observation of 90 fifth-grade mathematics classes in Chinese elementary schools, examined how the task features, high cognitive demand, multiple representations, and multiple solution methods may relate to classroom discourse. Results indicate that high cognitive demand tasks were associated with teachers’ use higher order questioning. Higher order questioning but not the high cognitive demand tasks themselves generated participatory responses among students. However, when teachers pursued multiple solution methods, they were more inclined to ask memorization and procedural lower order questions than explanatory and analytical higher order questions. Contrary to our hypothesis, high cognitive demand tasks and higher order questions related to teacher authority in evaluating students’ answers whereas neither cognitive demand, multiple representations, nor teachers’ pursuit of multiple solution methods were directly related to teacher–student joint authority in discourse. Implications regarding the relationship between tasks and discourse and instructional practice in a cultural context are discussed. DA - 2014/01/02/ PY - 2014 DO - 10.1080/07370008.2013.857319 VL - 32 IS - 1 SP - 2 EP - 43 J2 - Cognition and Instruction SN - 0737-0008 UR - https://doi.org/10.1080/07370008.2013.857319 N1 -doi: 10.1080/07370008.2013.857319
ER - TY - JOUR TI - An Integral Part of Facilitating Mathematical Discussions: Follow-up Questioning AU - Lim, Woong AU - Lee, Ji-Eun AU - Tyson, Kersti AU - Kim, Hee-Jeong AU - Kim, Jihye T2 - International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education AB - This study explores the relationship between students’ perceptions and teachers’ discourse practices in mathematics classrooms. It reframes the sequence of Initiate-Response-Follow-up (IRF) with a renewed discourse structure that focuses on teachers’ follow-up actions including listening, thoughtful questioning, and effective talk moves. Specifically, the study analyzes how these follow-up actions were related to positive student perceptions about their teachers’ discourse practices around sustaining productive discussions in mathematics classrooms. Participants were secondary mathematics teachers (n = 57) and their students (n = 875) in U.S. schools. The study first considered the students’ perceptions of their teachers’ discourse practices, identifying which teachers were perceived by students to implement mathematics discussions. Next, the study identified and examined patterns of teacher practices in discussions—the teachers’ talk moves, duration, and frequency in asking follow-up questions. Findings indicate that the teachers identified by students as promoting mathematics discussion tended to ask follow-up questions that increased and sustained students’ participation in mathematics discussions. What this finding implies is that in asking follow-up questions, the teacher listened and responded to students’ ideas, and students felt heard. The study asserts that there is much potential for enhancing mathematics instruction by learning more about how teachers listen to and build on students’ responses. DA - 2020/02/01/ PY - 2020 DO - 10.1007/s10763-019-09966-3 VL - 18 IS - 2 SP - 377 EP - 398 J2 - International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education SN - 1573-1774 UR - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10763-019-09966-3 ER - TY - JOUR TI - Teacher questioning in a Chinese context: Implications for New Zealand classrooms AU - Zhu, Yiyi AU - Edwards, Frances T2 - Teachers and Curriculum AB - Teacher questioning is a very important aspect of teacher-student interaction in classrooms around the world. However, expectations of the purposes and types of these interactions can be variable, particularly across cultural contexts. This qualitative study considers the way teacher questioning is used in a mathematics class in a Chinese primary classroom. The types of questions, expectations for answers and teacher behaviours are described through the use of a short-structured observation. Questions were found to be restricted to a rapid-fire format and only a minority of students were called upon to answer questions. This is contrasted with the expectations of the use of questioning in Western contexts, and highlights the challenges for both Chinese teachers and students when they move into the New Zealand education system. DA - 2019/07/16/ PY - 2019 DO - 10.15663/tandc.v19i1.340 VL - 19 IS - 1 J2 - tandc UR - https://tandc.ac.nz/index.php/tandc/article/view/340 Y2 - 2024/01/03/ ER - TY - JOUR TI - Categorizing mathematics teachers’ questioning: The demands and contributions of teachers’ questions AU - DeJarnette, Anna F. AU - Wilke, Edana AU - Hord, Casey T2 - International Journal of Educational Research AB - We conducted a review of literature to answer the following research questions: (1) What types of questions do teachers pose in mathematical discussions? (2) What evidence exists of the effects of different types of questioning on students’ learning and participation? (3) What are the implications of existing research for teacher preparation? Existing literature can broadly be categorized according to studies that distinguish between higher order and lower order questioning, studies that characterize and distinguish probing questions, and studies that address teacher questioning in technology-rich environments. The demands of different types of questions need to be considered in light of the broader contributions that such questions make to students’ mathematical learning. DA - 2020/01/01/ PY - 2020 DO - 10.1016/j.ijer.2020.101690 VL - 104 SP - 101690 J2 - International Journal of Educational Research SN - 0883-0355 UR - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0883035520317961 KW - Classroom discourse KW - Literature review KW - Teacher education KW - Teacher questioning ER - TY - JOUR TI - Regulation of Teacher Elicitations in the Mathematics Classroom AU - Nathan, Mitchell J. AU - Kim, Suyeon T2 - Cognition and Instruction DA - 2009/04/03/ PY - 2009 DO - 10.1080/07370000902797304 VL - 27 IS - 2 SP - 91 EP - 120 J2 - Cognition and Instruction SN - 0737-0008 UR - https://doi.org/10.1080/07370000902797304 N1 -doi: 10.1080/07370000902797304
ER - TY - BOOK TI - Matematikk Grunnbok 4B AU - Arginskaya, Iren AU - Ivanovskaya, Ekaterina AU - Kormishina, Svetlana AU - Blank, Natalia AU - Tveit, Cato AU - Melhus, Kjersti DA - 2017/// PY - 2017 PB - Barentsforlag SN - 978-82-92562-62-8 ER - TY - JOUR TI - Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching and Task Unfolding: An Exploratory Study AU - Charalambous, Charalambos Y. T2 - The Elementary School Journal AB - Abstract Although teachers' knowledge is thought to contribute to the selection and implementation of mathematical tasks, empirical evidence supporting this claim is scarce. To investigate this relationship and understand its nature, this exploratory study examines the unfolding of tasks in a series of lessons led by 2 elementary school teachers who differed in their level of mathematical knowledge for teaching (MKT). The Mathematical Tasks Framework (MTF) was applied to 9 videotaped lessons from each teacher, with results showing notable differences in the unfolding of tasks in the teachers' lessons. A close examination of data from several other sources—curriculum documents and teachers' general, clinical, and postlesson interviews—suggested a positive association between teachers' MKT and the cognitive level at which tasks are enacted in their lessons. Three tentative hypotheses about specific manifestations of this relationship and directions for future studies situated at the intersection of MKT and MTF are outlined. DA - 2010/// PY - 2010 DO - 10.1086/648978 VL - 110 IS - 3 SP - 247 EP - 278 SN - 00135984, 15548279 UR - http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/648978 DB - JSTOR Y2 - 2024/11/25/ ER - TY - JOUR TI - Why did I ask that question? Bilingual/ESL pre-service teachers’ insights AU - Diaz, Zulmaris AU - Whitacre, Michael AU - Esquierdo, J Joy AU - Ruiz-Escalante, Jose A T2 - International Journal of instruction DA - 2013/// PY - 2013 VL - 6 IS - 2 J2 - International Journal of instruction SN - 1694-609X ER - TY - CONF TI - A typology of questions by instructional function AU - Enright, Esther A AU - Hickman, Lauren AU - Ball, Deborah Loewenberg T2 - 13th International Congress on Mathematical Education, Hamburg, Germany DA - 2016/// PY - 2016 ER - TY - JOUR TI - Challenges of teaching with challenging tasks: Teaching dilemmas arising from implementing a reform-oriented approach to primary mathematics. AU - Gjære, Åsmund Lillevik T2 - Mathematics Teacher Education and Development DA - 2023/// PY - 2023 VL - 25 IS - 2 UR - https://mted.merga.net.au/index.php/mted/article/view/768 ER - TY - JOUR TI - Teaching mathematics developmentally AU - Gjære, Åsmund Lillevik AU - Blank, Natalia T2 - For the Learning of Mathematics AB - [L.V. Zankov (1901–1977), a student and colleague of Vygotsky, developed a system of developmental education for elementary education through 20 years of extensive research. Since 2009, a number of Norwegian schools have been using textbooks in mathematics based on Zankov’s system. In this article, we present and discuss the experiences of some Norwegian teachers – both what they have learned about teaching mathematics by adopting the system and the challenges they have faced. We also outline some key theoretical points of Zankov’s system and present illustrative example tasks from the textbooks used in Norway.] DA - 2019/// PY - 2019 VL - 39 IS - 3 SP - 28 EP - 33 SN - 02280671 UR - https://www.jstor.org/stable/26854431 DB - JSTOR Y2 - 2024/11/25/ ER - TY - JOUR TI - Agency in a geometry review lesson: A linguistic view on teacher and student division of labor AU - González, Gloriana AU - DeJarnette, Anna F. T2 - Linguistics and Education AB - Research has shown that expert mathematics teachers are more effective than novices eliciting and incorporating students’ ideas during review lessons. In this paper, we inquire into students’ agency in a review. We ask: (1) What is the division of labor between the teacher and the students? (2) What linguistic resources does an expert teacher use to manage students’ contributions? We examined classroom videos of an experienced geometry teacher who conducted reviews in four lessons. We applied Systemic Functional Linguistics to identify the resources from the system of Negotiation used. We found that the teacher had more agency than the students. However, in one lesson, the teacher's performance of Negotiation moves enabled the students to have some agency in the selection of components of the review tasks. Overall, students’ performance of dynamic moves enabled them to address their difficulties and the teacher's performance of move complexes made explicit the operations to be remembered. We suggest ways for teachers to enable students to have agency during reviews. DA - 2012/06/01/ PY - 2012 DO - 10.1016/j.linged.2012.02.001 VL - 23 IS - 2 SP - 182 EP - 199 J2 - Linguistics and Education SN - 0898-5898 UR - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0898589812000174 KW - Mathematics KW - Agency KW - Discursive moves KW - Geometry KW - Systemic Functional Linguistics ER - TY - BOOK TI - Intentional Talk: How to Structure and Lead Productive Mathematical Discussions AU - Kazemi, Elham AU - Hintz, Allison DA - 2014/// PY - 2014 PB - Stenhouse ER - TY - BOOK TI - Classroom questions: What kinds? AU - Sanders, NM DA - 1966/// PY - 1966 PB - Harper & Row ER - TY - JOUR TI - Making mathematical practices explicit in urban middle and high school mathematics classrooms AU - Selling, Sarah Kate T2 - Journal for Research in Mathematics Education DA - 2016/// PY - 2016 DO - 10.5951/jresematheduc.47.5.0505 VL - 47 IS - 5 SP - 505 EP - 551 ER - TY - CHAP TI - The problem of age AU - Vygotsky, Lev Semyonovich T2 - The Collected Works of L. S. Vygotsky: Volume 5: Child Psychology A2 - Rieber, Robert W. DA - 1998/// PY - 1998 SP - 187 EP - 206 PB - Springer ER - TY - JOUR TI - A Teacher’s Mediation of a Thinking-Aloud Discussion in a 6th Grade Mathematics Classroom AU - Zolkower, Betina AU - Shreyar, Sam T2 - Educational Studies in Mathematics AB - This article presents a Vygotsky-inspired analysis of how a teacher mediated a “thinking aloud” whole-group discussion in a 6th grade mathematics classroom. This discussion centered on finding patterns in a triangular array of consecutive numbers as a phase towards building recursive and direct algebraic formulas. By a “thinking aloud” discussion we mean a conversation wherein students exchange and further develop ideas-in-the-making with their peers under the teacher’s guidance. Drawing upon Halliday’s systemic functional linguistics (SFL), we treated the selected discussion as a text. We then analyzed how the teacher mediated the conjoined making of this text so that it served as an interpersonal gateway for students to practice searching for patterns and signifying these patterns in propositional form. This analysis was guided by the following questions: How did the discussion as a text-in-the-making mean what it did? What was the role of the teacher in the conjoined making of this text? Our study illustrates the power of SFL for capturing the inner grammar of instructional conversations thus illuminating the complexities and subtleties of the teacher’s role in mediating semiotic mediation in mathematics classrooms. DA - 2007/06/01/ PY - 2007 DO - 10.1007/s10649-006-9046-0 VL - 65 IS - 2 SP - 177 EP - 202 J2 - Educational Studies in Mathematics SN - 1573-0816 UR - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10649-006-9046-0 ER -