Relationship Between Mathematical Discourse and Student Enacted Levels of Cognitive Demand

• In Event: AERA Poster Session 6
  In Poster Session: Mathematics Education Research Poster Session 2

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between two discourse types and student-enacted cognitive demand (CD) for mathematics tasks at four intended Depth of Knowledge (DOK) levels. Participants were 97 fifth-grade students grouped in 34 groups from four classrooms. Using mixed methods research, the researcher found verbal evidence of high CD at all four DOK levels during Reflective and Exploratory Discourse; however, only Reflective Discourse had similar written evidence of high CD. Students working collaboratively generally had higher enacted CD. Additionally, DOK1 and DOK2 tasks had the highest discourse quality during Exploratory Discourse, while DOK3 tasks had the highest discourse quality during Reflective Discourse. Results show the importance of both Reflective and Exploratory Discourse to promote high student-enacted levels of cognitive demand.

Author

• Kristy Litster, Valdosta State University