Interaction in the mathematics classroom: Patterns in teacher-student dialogue and their relationship to learning

Abstract

If discursive routines are a means to build capacity for students to think mathematically, then what kinds of thinking are supported through classroom discourse? Is the classroom a place where students are asked to think and reason for oneself or to remember someone elses thinking? This study used microanalysis of discourse to explore the relationships between teacher and student discourse patterns in mathematics classrooms and how these patterns were related to student learning. Focusing on the underlying discursive construct of intellectual work, analyses revealed that although high levels of intellectual work are rare in classrooms, there was a positive relationship between the intellectual work reflected in both teachers and students discourse and the learning of rate and proportionality.