Instilling Greater Responsibility by Sharing Authority With Students: Teacher Discursive Techniques in Whole-Class Discussions

• In Event: Transformative Language Routines, Student Authority, and Student Participation

Abstract

In discursive mathematics pedagogy, teachers share intellectual authority with students through facilitation of talk. Although research on this process has proliferated, less is known about how teachers coordinate the ideas of joint mathematical thinkers during whole-class discussions. This study examines one elementary school teacher’s facilitation of different discussions in a unit. Utilizing Mercer’s (2000) framework for coordinating intellectual activity, this paper analyzes teacher discourse and its functions in creating continuity of meaning among student ideas. Although each discussion used similar techniques in similar proportions, each technique’s function was highly situated in the day’s learning goals, and reflective of the distribution of authority between teacher and students. Findings highlight links between a teacher’s discursive choices and how intellectual authority becomes shared.

Authors

• Kimiko E. Lange, Stanford University

• Jennifer Marie Langer-Osuna, Stanford University