What Is Involved in Centering Listening in the Teaching of Elementary Mathematics?

• In Event: The Teacher's Role in Mathematics Learning

Abstract

Despite the importance of listening in teaching, it remains an understudied phenomenon. Previous research on this topic has centered how teachers and students listen and respond to one another. However, left relatively unexamined is how teachers create a classroom environment where listening is central to teaching and learning. In this paper, I analyze several elementary mathematics lessons to explore how teachers support students to listen to one another. The lessons are drawn from video recordings of a fifth-grade U.S. classroom in a suburban area of the Midwest. Preliminary findings indicate that the two co-teachers in the focal classroom center listening by communicating the importance of listening, orienting students to one another, and using students’ solutions as learning opportunities.

Author

• Karin Brown, University of Michigan
  Presenting Author