Supporting Student Justification in Middle School Mathematics Classrooms: Teachers\u27 Work to Create a Context for Justificaiton

Abstract

Justification is an important disciplinary and learning practice. Despite a growing knowledge base regarding how teachers orchestrate mathematical discussions, few analyses have considered the orchestration of specific disciplinary practices such as justification. Using classroom video data from the JAGUAR project, we analyze two instantiations of extensive student justification in seventh-grade classrooms and document each teacher’s pedagogical approach that supported students’ engagement in this practice. We argue that, although there was overlap in their pedagogical repertoires, the teachers created a context for student justification in two unique ways. We document the similarities and differences in their approaches, including the nature of teachers’ responses to student ideas, nature of the teachers’ press prompts (for reasoning and justification), nature of the classroom culture, and priorities in task design and task implementation. Implications are discussed

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