ERIC Number: EJ815582
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2008-Oct
Pages: 37
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1050-8406
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
"I Went by Twos, He Went by One": Multiple Interpretations of Inscriptions as Resources for Mathematical Discussions
Moschkovich, Judit N.
Journal of the Learning Sciences, v17 n4 p551-587 Oct 2008
This article examines a classroom discussion of multiple interpretations of the scales on two distance versus time graphs. The analysis describes how two students and a teacher used multiple meanings for phrases of the form "I went by" and coordinated these meanings with different views of the scales. Students' ambiguous and shifting meanings did not prove to be obstacles to this discussion. Instead, this teacher used student interpretations as resources, built on them, and connected them to canonical mathematical concepts--in particular by highlighting (Goodwin, 1994) a "unitized" (Lamon, 1994, 1996, 2007) view of the scales. Research in mathematics education describes teaching that promotes conceptual development as having two central features: One is that teachers and students attend explicitly to concepts, and the other is that students wrestle with important mathematics (Hiebert & Grouws, 2007). Not only does this classroom discussion provide an example that it is possible to balance these two features, but the analysis provides the details of "how" instruction can simultaneously provide explicit attention to concepts while allowing students to wrestle with these concepts. (Contains 3 tables, 12 figures and 3 footnotes.)
Descriptors: Mathematics Education, Discussion (Teaching Technique), Mathematical Concepts, Concept Formation, Teaching Methods, Grade 8, Secondary School Mathematics, Bilingual Students, Problem Solving, Cooperative Learning, Graphs, Teacher Role, Language Usage, Middle School Students
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Grade 8; Middle Schools
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A