Students' formal written communication

This work is part of Swedish Institute for Educational Research grant 2020-00066

Students’ strategies for presenting the problem

Students are, to various degrees, expected to present a context or explain what problem they are working on when they report on their problem-solving work. This expectation rarely comes with instructions on the best way to do this, and, as with most writing in mathematics, research on the issue or curricular standards is limited. This study uses multimodal analysis to investigate students’ strategies for presenting the problem, premises, and facts. The students are part of a research project focused on developing their ability to design written accounts of problem solving by addressing the efficiency and clarity of their writing. Findings suggest students use one of two strategies: integrating the problem and its premises with the calculations or separating the information from the rest of the account. Within these strategies, students approach demands for effective and clear communication in different ways using different semiotic resources.

Knowledge and writing in school mathematics : a communicational approach

This thesis is about young students’ writing in school mathematics and the ways in which this writing is designed, interpreted and understood. Students’ communication can act as a source from which teachers can make inferences regarding students’ mathematical knowledge and understanding. In mathematics education previous research indicates that teachers assume that the process of interpreting and judging students’ writing is unproblematic. The relationship between what students’ write, and what they know or understand, is theoretical as well as empirical. In an era of increased focus on assessment and measurement in education it is necessary for teachers to know more about the relationship between communication and achievement. To add to this knowledge, the thesis has adopted a broad approach, and the thesis consists of four studies. The aim of these studies is to reach a deep understanding of writing in school mathematics. Such an understanding is dependent on examining different aspects of writing. The four studies together examine how the concept of communication is described in authoritative texts, how students’ writing is viewed by teachers and how students make use of different communicational resources in their writing. The results of the four studies indicate that students’ writing is more complex than is acknowledged by teachers and authoritative texts in mathematics education. Results point to a sophistication in students’ approach to the merging of the two functions of writing, writing for oneself and writing for others. Results also suggest that students attend, to various extents, to questions regarding how, what and for whom they are writing in school mathematics. The relationship between writing and achievement is dependent on students’ ability to have their writing reflect their knowledge and on teachers’ thorough knowledge of the different features of writing and their awareness of its complexity. From a communicational perspective the ability to communicate [in writing] in mathematics can and should be distinguished from other mathematical abilities. By acknowledging that mathematical communication integrates mathematical language and natural language, teachers have an opportunity to turn writing in mathematics into an object of learning. This offers teachers the potential to add to their assessment literacy and offers students the potential to develop their communicational ability in order to write in a way that better reflects their mathematical knowledge

Feedback for creative reasoning

International audienceThis study investigates how principles of feedback to encourage students´ creative reasoning can be used by a mathematics teacher. An experienced teacher was introduced to principles, developed in pilot studies, and was instructed to plan a lesson based on four principles for feedback. During the lesson the teacher’s interactions with students were recorded and the following analysis focused on the way feedback resonated with the principles. The result indicates that providing feedback which challenges students to reason creatively is difficult and complex. There are pitfalls that originate in established classroom norms for interaction, as well as beliefs about the object of teaching, and it appears that the principles, in order to become a powerful tool, require the teacher and students, to practice using them

Feedback to encourage creative reasoning

This paper presents the way pilot studies underpin a design for a future project investigating how formative feedback can be designed in order to support students’ creative reasoning when constructing solutions to mathematical tasks. It builds on the idea that creative reasoning is beneficial to students’ mathematical learning. Four pilot studies have been performed with the purpose of creating an empirical base for the preparation of formative feedback to students in mathematics classrooms. The results represent a development of general theoretical guidelines for formative feedback. Our specific and empirically based guidelines will act as a starting point for further intervention studies investigating the design of formative feedback aimed at supporting students’ creative reasoning

Teacher Professional Development and Collegial Learning: A literature review through the lens of Activity System

International audienceThis study maps key features of effective Teacher Professional Development (TPD) and the framework of Communities of Inquiry (CoI), in an effort to gain an understanding of how these features contribute to teachers’ collegial learning. Activity system, as described by Engeström (1987)/(1999), is used as a theoretical lens which allows for the visualization of TPD as a complex system. The result indicates that, apart from differences in the level of detail in the description of various features, there are differences in the demands the two models place on teachers. Establishing norms that promote collegial learning, in which critical inquiry is expected, emerged as a critical issue. This highlights the importance of viewing any variant of TPD as a process, in which the functions of features shift. Awareness of this process may prove important in designing and implementing future TPD initiatives

Lärares professionsutveckling

Svensson, Christina, 1966-. - Undervisningsutvecklande professionsutbildning för blivande och verksamma matematiklärare : en studie med utgångspunkt i ett variationsteoretiskt perspektiv / Christina Svensson.. - 2022. - ISBN: 9789178772452</p

Characteristics of Collaborative Learning in Teacher Professional Development : A Systematic Review

Professional Learning Communities (PLC) have been used increasingly in designing and discussing teachers' professional development, but how PLC are organised and framed differ between contexts. There is a lack of meta-level studies that aim to define and compare different ways of organising PLC. In this literature review of 32 studies, Cultural-historical Activity Theory (CHAT) is used as an analytical lens to examine different models for PLC in mathematics. By examining and comparing PLC in mathematics, the review aims to expand understanding of how PLC in mathematics can be organised and framed. The result revealed three distinctive activity systems with different objects: developing norms for collaboration, developing teachers’ understanding about mathematics and its teaching, and developing teachers’ repertoire of teaching actions. The activity systems vary concerning the use of mediating artifacts and the norms that regulate each activity system, but are similar regarding participants, context, and division of labor. The review indicates that the teachers participating in PLC in mathematics change their norms of collaboration, enhance their understanding of mathematics and its teaching, and/or enhance their ability to design and carry out mathematics teaching. Our findings can assist designers, organisers, participants, and researchers in making informed decisions about PLC in mathematics

Characteristics of Collaborative Learning in Teacher Professional Development : A Systematic Review

Professional Learning Communities (PLC) have been used increasingly in designing and discussing teachers' professional development, but how PLC are organised and framed differ between contexts. There is a lack of meta-level studies that aim to define and compare different ways of organising PLC. In this literature review of 32 studies, Cultural-historical Activity Theory (CHAT) is used as an analytical lens to examine different models for PLC in mathematics. By examining and comparing PLC in mathematics, the review aims to expand understanding of how PLC in mathematics can be organised and framed. The result revealed three distinctive activity systems with different objects: developing norms for collaboration, developing teachers’ understanding about mathematics and its teaching, and developing teachers’ repertoire of teaching actions. The activity systems vary concerning the use of mediating artifacts and the norms that regulate each activity system, but are similar regarding participants, context, and division of labor. The review indicates that the teachers participating in PLC in mathematics change their norms of collaboration, enhance their understanding of mathematics and its teaching, and/or enhance their ability to design and carry out mathematics teaching. Our findings can assist designers, organisers, participants, and researchers in making informed decisions about PLC in mathematics