Learning to Lead Equitable Mathematics Discussions in the Elementary Classroom

• In Event: 45.046 - Teacher Learning to Position Students as Capable in Class Discussions: Looking Across Subject Matter Domains

Abstract

Purpose. We explain the conceptual underpinnings of our work in supporting novice elementary teachers to learn to lead equitable mathematical discussions. Participating in rich mathematical discussions is one way that students can be invited into the discipline of mathematics and build an expansive view of what mathematics is and its usefulness in making sense of and acting in the world. Orchestrating productive classroom discussions, however, remains challenging for teachers and a fertile area for continued work (e.g., Sleep, 2012; Stein, Grover, Henningsen, 1996).

Grounding Framework. The development of expertise entails multiple interwoven processes of developing professional vision, knowledge, skill, and identity (Herrenkohl & Mertl, 2010). From this sociocultural perspective on learning, our approach to supporting novice teachers to lead mathematical discussions is to develop tools and frameworks for supporting professional vision and use those tools in social arrangements that develop skill, knowledge, and identity. This system of learning has enabled ongoing inquiry into supporting novice teachers to build asset-based views of students and create classroom communities that are responsive to racially and linguistically diverse students (Nasir et al., 2006).

Modes of Inquiry. We draw on Smith and Stein’s (2018) widely used framework for understanding the architecture of discussions: identifying learning goals, anticipating student thinking, launching tasks, selecting and sequencing students’ approaches in order to achieve the learning goal. To this framework, we have added the following ideas: the nature of the learning goal, how to orient students to one another, and how to position students’ competently. We discern between open strategy discussions where the goal is to elicit different solutions with targeted discussions where the goal may be to compare solutions, build justifications, revise incorrect approaches, or explain the meaning of tools or representations. These discussion types are then exemplified by particular instructional activities that provide a lesson structure for novices to plan instruction, rehearse them first with peers and a teacher educator acting as coach, enact them children, and analyze video records for continued reflection and refinement. Reflections include how each student participated in the discussion, what status issue arose, how students were positioned competently, and how instructional decision-making shaped the nature of student participation and engagement with the mathematics.

Significance. The learning system has afforded many learning opportunities. The instructional activities have evolved from ones that focus attention mostly on the structure of our number system to ones that allow for contextual, culturally relevant or justice-oriented contexts. Because we combine pedagogies that enable investigation of teaching with pedagogies of enactment, we closely link teacher decision making with developing relationships with students. This facet has enabled us to better consider how the meaning of “productive” discussion must always be analyzed in relation to particular mathematics and students and cannot be judged in any generalized way. This evolving learning systems allows us to continue to learn about the intersections of mathematics learning, teaching, and identity (Aguirre, Mayfield-Ingram, Martin, 2013).

Authors

• Elham Kazemi, University of Washington

• Starlie Chinen, University of Washington - Seattle

• Elzena McVicar, University of Washington - Seattle