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Research Monograph # 1
How can teachers support meaningful, Student Interaction in the Math Classroom:
It was the third math class of the year. My Grade 7 students were unusually
eager. We were looking for patterns in a strategic list of solutions generated
Research Tells Us from a number game. As one student described a complex pattern in the
Teaching practices that emphasize sequence, a second student shouted: She stole my idea! At that point, I
student interaction improve both problem- knew my work was cut out for me. How could I possibly move this group of
solving and conceptual understanding competitive students from believing that math was an individual sport where
without loss of computational mastery. power lies in the hoarding of information and getting the answer first, to
understanding the exponential power of mathematical thinking when it is
Benefits increase further when students
share their reasoning with one another.
shared and built collectively?
The research presented here is intended to provide information about evidence-based practices and strategies.
January 2007 The Ministry of Education does not necessarily support this research.
interaction improve both problem-solving and conceptual understanding5,6
without the loss of computational mastery.7,8 Why then does the traditional
mathematics teaching model, focused on basic computational procedures with
little facilitation of student discourse, continue to be the common instructional
approach in many elementary schools?
4. The teacher knew when to intervene and when to let the conversation
continue even if it was erroneous.
5. Students were evaluated on their math-talk.
Implications for
Educational Practice
students.
Whole-Class Math-Talk
2. Justification of solutions
1. Explain: This is my solution/strategy
I think _____ is saying that
Encouraging productive argumentation and justification in class discussions
leads to greater student understanding. In a study of four teachers using Explain your thinking and show your
the same lesson, Kazemi and Stipek16 found that there were significant thinking.
differences in the quality of math-talk from class to class. Two of the four Rephrase what another student has
classes demonstrated evidence of deeper mathematical inquiry. In these two said.
classes, the teachers explicitly asked students to justify their strategies
2. Agree with reason: I agree because
mathematically and not merely recount procedures.
Agree with another student and
3. Students questioning one another describe your reason for agreeing.
Agree with another student and
Getting students to ask each other good questions is a very powerful strategy. provide an alternate explanation.
For example, King17 found that giving students prompt cards, with a range of
3. Disagree with reason: I disagree
higher-order questions, led to greater student achievement. The prompts were
because
question stems such as how are ... and ... similar? Students applied current
content to the questions (e.g., how are squares and parallelograms similar?). Disagree with another student and
The students retained more when they used prompt cards than when they spent explain or show how your thinking/
the same amount of time discussing content in small groups without prompts. solution differs.
In sum ...
Lets return to the concern raised in the opening vignette, where shared or
similar solutions and strategies are described as the stealing of ideas. In order
to move beyond this competitive and isolating approach which has had limited
success, students must be encouraged to work, think, and talk together while
engaging in powerful mathematics tasks. Clearly, the teacher plays a pivotal role
in shaping the learning environment. By providing students with a framework
for interaction, students can be guided effectively towards working as a learning
community in which sharing math power extends understanding and leads to
higher levels of achievement.
January 2007 3
1. Nathan M. J. & Knuth, E. J. (2003). (Eds.), Proceedings of the twenty-
A study of whole classroom mathe seventh Psychology of Mathematics
matical discourse and teacher change. Association-North America.
References
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Introduction: The coordination of psy
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What Works? Research into Practice implementation of standards-based
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Wilson, S., Wilkins, J.L.M. & Behm, S.L.