When a Year 7 student physically reacted to a prompt of another student by anxiously drumming the desk with his ruler, exclaiming "uuuuhh", the initial thought of the observing researcher, Laura, was: "this is an interesting account". This started a reflective journey of first applying robust research methodologies to the…

We aim to open up discussion about the intertwined roles of teachers and tasks that involve students communicating about mathematics when working in groups. Over many years we have observed, researched and ourselves have taught students working on mathematics in groups and find that it is often easier to pay attention to the forms of communication…

Advancement of self-regulation during complex problem solving and the development of strategical reasoning are among the central educational goals linked to 21st century skills. In this paper we introduce the notion of "Stepped Tasks", which are specially designed in Top-Down structure to achieve these goals in mathematics instruction.…

This article presents a case study of a small group of Grade 8 students performing bricolage during a classroom mathematics task. The data analysis involves the use of 'tapestries', a style of transcript that enables the consideration of both the group and individuals within the group as learning agents. I characterize bricolage as an emergent,…

Discusses whether verbal interaction is recognized as the source from which co-operative groups draw their power to facilitate mathematical learning. Reflects on a group in a mathematics course for prospective secondary teachers focused on problem solving where silence was commonplace. (ASK)

Examines an intervention study of 23 students in an elementary teacher education program to determine the effects of three nontraditional mathematics courses on the teacher candidates' conceptual understanding of mathematics and the learning of mathematics. Results indicate that the intervention produced significant changes in prospective…