Feedback for creative reasoning

Abstract

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