The Work of Listening to and Hearing Children’s Mathematical Competence

• In Event: Mathematics Teaching and Learning: Uncovering and Unpacking Instructional Practices

Abstract

This paper focuses on the work of attending to children’s mathematical productions. Young children speak in their own terms, use gestures and drawings and have their own developed ideas and ways of thinking. The predominant construction of mathematics as a domain of correctness and precision impedes the openness, attention, and curiosity required to hear children’s ideas. This pattern is more pronounced for children of historically marginalized identities, who are regularly positioned through deficit lenses. Drawing on data from classroom discussions, this paper analyzes the demands of listening to and hearing the competence in children’s mathematics. The analyses contribute to developing more dynamic theoretical models of mathematical knowledge for teaching (MKT) in intersection with deliberate practice to advance equity.

Authors

• Deborah Loewenberg Ball, University of Michigan

• Mark Hoover, University of Michigan