INSTRUCTIONAL SITUATIONS AND STUDENTS’ OPPORTUNITIES TO REASON IN THE HIGH SCHOOL GEOMETRY CLASS

Abstract

We outline a theory of instructional exchanges and characterize a handful of instructional situations in high school geometry that frame some of these exchanges. In each of those instructional situations we inspect the possible role of reasoning and proof, drawing from data collected in intact classrooms as well as in instructional interventions.This manuscript is part of the final report of the NSF grant CAREER 0133619 “Reasoning in high school geometry classrooms: Understanding the practical logic underlying the teacher’s work” to the first author.All opinions are those of the authors and do not represent the views of the National Science Foundation.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78372/1/Instructional_Situations_in_Geometry.pd