The Role of Off-Task Interactions in Supporting Productive Disciplinary Engagement in Elementary Mathematics

• In Event: Understanding the Transformative Power of Teacher and Student Agency in Changing Educational Contexts

Abstract

Objectives
In this paper, we examine student agency during collaborative mathematics problem-solving, in particular how students negotiate access and authority during off-task interactions. Our study of student agency focuses on “the opportunity, will and skill of people to act upon, influence as well as transform activities and circumstances in their lives (authors, 2016).” In doing so, we hope to offer new insights to understanding how young people negotiate authority relations during social learning activities.

Framework
We focus on the role of off-task participation as an element of pedagogical imaginaries (Gutierrez & Barton, 2015) where young learners co-construct new ways of being in mathematics. Off-task interactional spaces disrupt normative expectations, particularly with respect to negotiating relations of social and interactional authority that regulate access and influence during collaborative work (authors, 2016; authors, 2017).

Methods
We present our analysis on the role of off-task participation in collaborative mathematics problem-solving. We analyzed 13 videotapes of mathematics problem-solving among fourth graders during a unit on place value (Fosnot, 2007). We uploaded the entire corpus of video for this classroom (13 videos across 6 days of instruction) to Studiocode video analysis software. First, we selected all instances where off-task participation was present (n=79 instances). We then coded the functions that off-task participation served for students, including: (a) managing attention among peers (e.g., eye gaze, body orientation); (b) managing one’s own and peers’ entrances into or exit from collaborative work; (c) sustaining the collaboration; and (d) avoiding work. These codes drew from both the literature and the data itself until saturation.

Findings and Significance
Preliminary results show that off-task participation served a range of functions in the co-regulation of collaborative problem-solving. In particular, specific positional resources were identified that support productive disciplinary engagement (Engle & Conant, 2002). These resources were utilized to serve the following functions: (a) gaining attention and access to the conversational floor: (b) bringing a marginalized student back into the collaboration; (c) recruiting more students into the collaboration; and (d) resisting domination by peers.
Results suggest that off-task participation may play an important role in maintaining shared intellectual work among students, in particular through its role in making available positional resources that function to support shared authority and collaboration. Specifically, we found that off-task participation not only helped renew motivation to participate (Sabourin, et al, 2011), but importantly offered alternate pathways into the collaboration and the maintenance of joint attention and sustained work (Barron, 2003). That is, students developed new forms of participation (Martin & Carter, 2015), which drew from youth popular culture among other Discourses, that broadened possibilities for managing, engaging in, and identifying with collaborative mathematical activity.

Authors

• Jennifer Marie Langer-Osuna, Stanford University

• Emma Carene Gargroetzi, Stanford Graduate School of Education

• Jen Munson, Stanford University

• Rosa Chavez, Stanford University