Belonging in Math Group Work

• In Event: Fairmont Roundtable Session Two
  In Roundtable Session: Section 1C Mathematics Roundtable One (Table 4)

Abstract

Belonging, referring to a student’s sense of connection and community in a school setting, is one way to understand how individual students experience groupwork and how these individual experiences come to shape the group. For this study, we analyzed the work of two groups of sixth-grade students to document how students cultivated (or not) a sense of belonging, when first learning to work in groups in math. In both groups, disrespectful actions on the part of some individuals made it impossible for certain students to experience belonging; which led to differences in the extent to which groups were able to self-govern. Documenting how students experience belonging through scaffolded groupwork is critical for creating classroom structures and facilitate positive mathematics identities.

Authors

• Michelle Renae Johnson, University of Cincinnati
  Presenting Author

• Anna Fricano DeJarnette, University of Cincinnati
  Presenting Author