Students’ struggle with learning mathematics is often cast in a negative light. Mathematics educators and researchers, however, suggest that struggling to make sense of mathematics is a necessary component of learning mathematics with understanding. In order to investigate the possible connection between struggle and learning, this study examined students’ productive struggle as students worked on tasks of higher cognitive demand in middle school mathematics classrooms. Students’ productive struggle refers to students’ “effort to make sense of mathematics, to figure something out that is not immediately apparent” (Hiebert & Grouws, 2007, p. 287) as opposed to students’ effort made in despair or frustration. As an exploratory case study using embedded multiple cases, the study examined 186 episodes of student‐teacher interactions in order to identify the kinds and nature of student struggles that occurred in a naturalistic classroom setting as students engaged in mathematical tasks focused on proportional reasoning. The study identified the kinds of teacher responses used in the interaction with the students and the types of resolutions that occurred. The participants were 327 6th and 7th grade students and their six mathematics teachers from three middle schools located in mid‐size Texas cities. Findings from the study identified four basic types of student struggles: get started, carry out a process, give a mathematical explanation, and express misconception and errors. Four kinds of teacher responses to these struggles were identified as situated along a continuum: telling, directed guidance, probing guidance, and affordance. The outcomes of the student‐teacher interactions that resolved the students’ struggles were categorized as: productive, productive at a lower level, or unproductive. These categories were based on how the interactions maintained the cognitive level of the implemented task, addressed the externalized student struggle, and built on student thinking. Findings provide evidence that there are aspects of student‐teacher interactions that appear to be productive for student learning of mathematics. The struggle‐response framework developed in the study can be used to further examine the phenomenon of student struggle from initiation, interaction, to its resolution, and measure learning outcomes of students who experience struggle to make sense of mathematics. / text

Ce travail comporte un aperçu de la théorie des positionnements, la construction d’une méthodologie adaptée à l’analyse des interactions, et l’application de cette méthodologie aux interactions de classe.Celle-ci est réalisée à partir de transcriptions d’enregistrements audio-vidéo de 15 heures de leçons en mathématiques et en physique/sciences en Angleterre et en France. Les élèves avaient entre 11 et 12 ans. Ces transcriptions sont divisées en épisodes, c’est-à-dire en unités cohérentes quant à leur thème et à leur enjeu. Puis, chaque épisode est codé selon les comportements observés pour le professeur. Les catégories de comportement trouvées pour l’interaction plénière de classe sont comparables à celles trouvées par d’autres travaux de recherche sur le travail en groupe. Une analyse réalisée afin de déterminer les types de comportement (considérés en tant que droits et devoirs) qui apparaissent simultanément indique que deux droits apparaissent souvent simultanément : poser une question scientifique et valider une proposition. Ceci est cohérent avec les résultats d’autres travaux de recherche, qui indiquent la prédominance des séquences IRE/IRF.Une étude de la fréquence de ces comportements met en évidence la rareté d’affirmations indépendantes par le professeur. Une analyse des épisodes qui contiennent de telles affirmations indique que le professeur n’introduit de nouveaux éléments en se reposant sur sa propre autorité que dans des cas particuliers : (a) suite à l’erreur d’un élève, auquel cas l’affirmation se limite à expliquer l’erreur, (b) suite à la question d’un élève, ou (c) suite à l’affirmation non invitée d’un élève. Les contenus introduits de cette manière semblent être considérés légitimes plus longtemps que ceux qui sont introduits en faisant référence à une source officielle.Les conséquences de ces résultats sont abordées : il semble désormais nécessaire de considérer l’agence des élèves lors de futurs travaux de recherche ; et il est possible qu’un style d’enseignement magistral puisse bénéficier à l’apprentissage. / This work consists in a theoretical overview of positioning theory, the construction of a methodology for interaction analysis, and its application to classroom interaction.The latter part is based on transcripts from audio-video recordings of 15 hours of lessons in mathematics and physics or science in England and in France, with children aged between 11 and 12. These transcripts were divided up into episodes, units displaying coherence in theme and purpose; and each episode was coded according to the types of behaviour the teacher displayed in them. The same types of behaviour were found in plenary interaction as those found by previous research into group work. Analysis carried out to highlight co-occurring types of behaviour (seen as rights and duties) only yielded two co-occurring rights – asking a scientific question and validating a statement, consistently with the previously noted prevalence of IRE/IRF sequences.A frequency analysis of the levels of occurrence of individual types of behaviour highlighted the scarcity of unsupported teacher statements. Further analysis of the episodes featuring teacher statements showed that the teacher may only introduce new elements on the basis of their own authority in highly specific circumstances: (a) after a student’s mistake, in which case the teacher’s statement is limited to explaining why the aforementioned mistake is one; (b) after a student’s question or (c) after a student’s unsolicited statement. In the last two cases, the teacher’s statement may go beyond the remit of the question or statement. Content introduced in such a way appears to have a longer-lasting legitimacy than that introduced with the help of official content.Some implications of these results are discussed: the need to take into account student agency in further research; and it is suggested that a lecturing style of teaching might be beneficial for learning.

This paper discusses correction sequences in classroom interaction when teachers correct students’ erroneous answers. The focus of this paper is the relevance between types and techniques of correction used by teachers to correct students’ answers and face-work. The study explains face-work necessity in classroom interaction since it increases students’ motivation to participate in classroom activities.

Examined in this hermeneutic phenomenological study is a transformation in the researcher's choral music teaching in which students' abilities to construct self emerged organically from interactions, or dialogues, that took place among and between the students, the teacher, and the music being studied. To allow for such interaction to emerge organically and meaningfully, students and teacher both shared in the power needed to construct a classroom environment in which the localized issues of the classroom and the specific contexts of students' lived histories were maintained and encouraged. This process of interaction, based upon dialogue among and between equal agents in the classroom, is described in the study as dialogic interactionism. In order to examine the concept of dialogic interactionism, three constructs upon which dialogic interactionism is based were developed and philosophically analyzed. They include the construction of self through the construction of self-knowledge; the localized reference system of the classroom, and the issue of power. Each construct is considered within the context of extant writings both in general education and music education philosophy. Following the analysis, a theoretical description of the dialogic interactive choral classroom is given as well a description of how such ideas might be realized in practice. The study concludes with issues for further study.

Developing students’ ability to think critically is an important goal of Swedish upper secondary school education. The aim of this thesis is to describe and analyse critical thinking at the classroom level from a didactic perspective. Using participant observation and interviews, two groups of students and their two course teachers are being studied during two months. The groups study philosophy and social studies respectively. The thesis explores in what way critical thinking is manifested in the classroom and how the teachers view critical thinking in relation to their teaching. Didactic decisions and challenges are identified and discussed. The findings show that critical thinking is manifested in the classroom dialogue. Focus, relevance and precision are distinctive qualities of critical discussions. The teachers use different strategies to scaffold critical thinking, such as developing what the students say, questioning assumptions and supporting with distinctions. Some of the challenges facing the teachers are finding ways of assisting students to be independent in their thinking, disputing what they say without being perceived as biased and creating the right atmosphere in the group allowing for critical thinking to take place. It’s concluded that critical thinking at the classroom level is a highly complex phenomenon that involves more than just thinking skills which is the dominant view among researchers in the field.

This dissertation investigates language policy in a Dutch-medium secondary school in Brussels. The school in question endeavours to implement a language policy in which languages other than Dutch are formally included, which is in stark contrast to their peers, who often implement a strict, Dutch-only policy in order to respond to the increasing linguistic diversity and “Frenchification” in Brussels Dutch-medium education. This thesis addresses the question of how the teachers negotiated such a pro-multilingual language policy in this setting. The research is designed as a (socio)linguistic ethnographic case study based on a conceptualisation of language policy as (1) operating on different levels; (2) consisting of three components; and inseparable from the social world in which it is effectuated. The study combines ethnographic field work and participant observation with interview data, linguistic analyses of interactional data, document analysis and analyses of elements of the linguistic landscape to gain insights into the nature and extent of the school’s unique pro-multilingual project. Although the school profiles itself as an institution which aims to prepare its pupils for future educational and professional success by increasing their language skills, the school’s policy declarations harbour an ambivalent stance vis à vis multilingualism. In terms of individual teachers’ perceptions and practices, then, we demonstrate that they, too, voiced contradictory sentiments and displayed behaviour in the classroom which was at once welcoming of pupils’ use of linguistic resources other than monolingual Dutch, and restrictive of it. / Doctorat en Langues, lettres et traductologie / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Taking an analytical perspective founded on ethnomethodology and conversation analysis, the four studies presented in this thesis provide detailed analyses of video recorded lab work in mechanics at secondary and university level. The investigated activities all build on educational design afforded by a technology called probeware. The aim of the thesis is to investigate how teachers, task formulations, and technology make mechanics visible and learnable, and how students and teachers witnessably orient towards the practical achievement of understanding in the setting. The first study investigates how students use the technology in the interpretation and production of graphs: how they produce increasingly precise interpretations, how they fluently switch between different modes of meaning, and how the interpretations are both prospectively and retrospectively oriented. With a starting point in the analysis, the relevance of technology and task structure for the students’ interaction and learning are discussed. In the second study, the use of probeware is contrasted with the use of a simulation software. The study shows that some important differences between the local enactment of the two technologies are to be found in the practical work of the students; more specifically, in the ways that students orient to the subject matter content. The third study demonstrates an intimate interplay between how students display their problems and understandings and how instructors try to make the subject matter content visible and learnable. The analyzed episodes are illuminating with regard to the analytical notion of disciplined perception as applied to graph interpretation, the cognitive and practical competencies involved in producing, recognizing, and understanding graphs in mechanics, and the interactive work by which these competencies are made into objects of learning and instruction. The fourth study investigates episodes where explicit references to students’ understanding are made through formulations such as, “I don’t understand” or “do you get it?” The analysis focuses on the use, reference, interactional significance, and positioning of these formulations, and is followed by a discussion on the relation between the many and varied ways references to understanding are used and the concrete conditions of lab work. In sum, all four studies contribute to a detailed understanding of lab work as an educational practice and how learning and instruction are practically achieved. / Avhandlingen baseras på fyra empiriska studier av laborationsarbete i mekanik. Den analytiska utgångspunkten hämtas från etnometodologi och angränsande ansatser. Materialet består av videoinspelad interaktion från en tematisk lärarutbildning, en teknisk gymnasieutbildning samt en högskoleingenjörsutbildning. I laborationerna använder studenterna en specifik teknologi kallad probeware, som består av kraft- och rörelsedetektorer kopplade till en dator. Gemensamt för laborationerna är också att uppgifterna bygger på ett likartat pedagogiskt upplägg, vilket i korthet innebär att studenterna först ska ställa upp en hypotes, sedan genomföra ett experiment och slutligen diskutera relationen mellan hypotes och resultat. Avhandlingens övergripande syfte är att undersöka lärandets konkreta villkor i laborationsarbetet: hur studenternas arbete, tillsammans med teknologi, uppgiftsformuleringar och lärarstöd, skapar vissa möjligheter för lärande och förståelse. Detta syfte specificeras i de fyra delstudierna. I den första studien undersöks hur två studenter, genom verbala tolkningar, gester och rörelser, gradvis får en större förståelse av en graf som representerar tid och hastighet. I artikeln diskuteras teknologins och uppgiftsformuleringens roll för sättet som studenterna interagerar och lär. Den andra studien jämför studenters användning av probeware med användningen av en simulering. Ett syfte med studien är att visa hur två aktiviteter som vid första anblick kan verka vara lika, samtidigt kan vara väldigt olika om man i detalj studerar vad studenterna gör och hur de angriper ämnesinnehållet. I den tredje studien analyseras interaktionen mellan två studenter och en lärare. Artikeln fokuserar på det täta samspelet mellan de sätt studenterna visar sina problem, i detta fall oförmågan att se något relevant i en graf, och de sätt som läraren försöker lösa dessa problem genom att visa vad och hur man kan se något i grafen. I den avslutande artikeln analyseras ett större antal sekvenser som innehåller explicita referenser till studenternas förståelse, såsom ”vi fattar inte”, ”förstår du?” och ”jag förstår den men inte den”. Analysen används sedan som utgångspunkt för en diskussion av relationen mellan de många och varierade sätt som förståelse refereras och laborationens praktiska villkor.

[pt] O presente trabalho busca investigar o papel do humor conversacional nas interações em uma sala de aula de língua inglesa, na qual a pesquisadora exerceu o papel de professora. A orientação da pesquisa é qualitativa e interpretativa, com o suporte teórico da Sociolingüística Interacional, da Análise da Conversa e de Teorias sobre o Humor, buscando analisar dados compostos por gravações de aulas em fitas de áudio e notas de campo. Foi realizada uma análise sociointeracional do discurso, baseada na noção de enquadres de brincadeira conversacional, visando perceber como estes são estabelecidos e finalizados, de que forma eles influenciam na socioconstrução de conhecimento e nas relações estabelecidas entre os participantes do contexto pesquisado. Os enquadres de brincadeira conversacional podem ser iniciados e finalizados tanto pela professora quanto pelos alunos, demonstrando a influência do estilo flexível da professora na utilização do humor em sala de aula. Os resultados apontam que o humor conversacional exerce papel fundamental para o envolvimento e a diminuição da assimetria entre os participantes, podendo atuar auxiliando na construção de conhecimento na língua alvo. A principal contribuição do trabalho é um maior entendimento do papel do humor nas interações em sala de aula, trazendo uma maior compreensão das interações no contexto educacional. / [en] This study investigates the role conversational humor plays in na English language classroom, in which the researcher was also the teacher. The research orientation is qualitative and interpretative, and the theoretical basis lies on Interactional Sociolinguistics, Conversation Analysis and theories of humor, in order to analyze data constituted by audio-taped classes and field notes. A sociointeractional discourse analysis was done, based on the construct of conversational play frame and intends to notice how these frames are initiated and ended and how they influence social construction of knowledge and the relation established between the participants of the investigated context. The conversational play frames may be initiated and ended not only by the teacher, but also by the students, which demonstrates the influence of the flexible style of the teacher in the humor use in the classroom. The results show that conversational humor is essential to promote involvement and to reduce asymmetry between the participants, and is also an auxiliary in the social construction of knowledge in the target language. The main contribution of this study is the understanding of the role conversational humor plays in classroom interactions, resulting in a better comprehension of the interactions that occur in the educational context.

本研究旨在探討一位國中英語教師對於課室互動及提問策略的信念與教學實務。資料搜集與分析採質性之資料收集及分析法，以期對於該英語教師之信念及教學能有整體的瞭解。參與本研究教師及學生為台中市一所中型公立國中的一位英文教師及一個七年級班級，期間自九十八年八月至十二月初。資料蒐集方式以訪談、課室觀察及回憶式訪談的逐字稿為主。 以課室互動的七個面向來探討及呈現此位國中英語教師對於課室互動及提問策略的信念與教學實務。研究結果指出該受訪英語教師的教學信念與實務在課室互動的重要性、語言的使用、提問的目的、提問的類型與提問策略等五個面向呈紫現一致性，唯活動類型、溝通式語言的使用面向不一致。研究結果發現該受訪英語教師教學實務深受其教學信念影響，而造成老師信念及實際上課些微差異的因素包括教科書、時間緊迫、大班級的呈現方式、學生的語言能力不足及班級裡頭學生語言能力個別差異大。研究者根據這些發現，提出了對英語教學的看法及未來研究方向的建議，以期對於課室互動及提問策略有整體的瞭解。 / The study attempts to better understand what beliefs a junior high school English teacher had with regard to classroom interaction and questioning, and how these beliefs were reflected in her actual practices. To achieve the purpose, qualitative methods were adopted to capture a holistic understanding of the teacher’s beliefs and practices. The participants included one junior high school English teacher and one seventh grade class in a medium-sized school in Taichung city. Data were collected from August of 2008 to December of 2008. Data from semi-structured interviews, classroom observations, stimulated recall interview, and field notes were analyzed to see the teacher’s beliefs and teaching practices about classroom interaction and questioning. Seven elements derived from classroom interaction and questioning were used to display the teacher’s beliefs and practices. The results of this study revealed the consistency of the participating teacher’s beliefs and practices in five areas: the significance of classroom interaction, choice of language, the purpose of questioning, teachers’ questioning types and teachers’ questioning strategies. The inconsistency between the teacher’s beliefs and practices was found on the elements of activity types and communicative language use. The results of the consistency between the teacher’s beliefs and practices showed that the teacher’s beliefs greatly influenced the way how she carried out instructional classroom practices. The results of inconsistency, on the other hand, suggesting a mismatch between the teacher’s beliefs and practices, were associated with the following factors, i.e., textbooks, time constraints, large class, students’ limited and diverse proficiency in English. Based on the findings, pedagogical implications and suggestions for future research were recommended. It is hoped to provide insights into the dynamics of classroom interaction and questioning.

I takt med att flerspråkiga elever förekommer alltmer i dagens skolverksamheter är det väsentligt för lärare att ha kännedom kring elevernas erfarenheter och kunskaper. Studiens syfte är att öka kunskapen om hur grundskollärare med inriktning årskurs 4–6, anpassar sin undervisning för att främja flerspråkiga elevers språkutveckling i svenskämnet. De frågeställningar som har uppfyllt studiens syfte är följande: Hur identifierar lärare de olika språkliga nivåerna i det flerspråkiga klassrummet? På vilka sätt säger lärare att de utformar sin undervisning för de flerspråkiga elevernas språkutveckling? Vilket resultat menar lärare att de åstadkommer med utformningen av undervisning för flerspråkiga elevers språkutveckling i klassrummet? Studiens utgångspunkt har varit det sociokulturella perspektivet. Studien genomfördes av en kvalitativ forskningsmetod i form av semistrukturerade intervjuer med fem lärare som undervisar i ämnet svenska. Resultatet visade att samtliga lärare anpassar sin undervisning på liknande sätt men det finns även olikheter kring det. I resultatet synliggörs det att lärarna använder digitala verktyg olika mycket för att främja de flerspråkiga elevernas språkutveckling. Samtliga lärare använder sig även en hel del av par- och grupparbeten. De anser att interaktionen mellan individer har en avgörande roll för språkutvecklingen, vilket även tidigare forskning synliggör. / As multilingual pupils become more and more common in today's school activities, it is essential for teachers to have knowledge of the pupils’ experiences and knowledge. The purpose of the study is to increase knowledge about how primary school teachers with a focus on grades 4–6, adapt their teaching to promote multilingual pupils’ language development in the Swedish subject. The questions that have fulfilled the purpose of the study are the following: How do teachers identify the different language levels in the multilingual classroom? In what ways do teachers say that they design their teaching for the language development of multilingual pupils? What result do teachers think they achieve with the design of teaching for multilingual pupils’ language development in the classroom? The starting point of the study has been the sociocultural perspective. The study was carried out by a qualitative research method in the form of semi-structured interviews with five teachers who teach the Swedish subject. The results showed that all teachers adapt their teaching in a similar way, but there are also differences around it. The results show that teachers use digital tools to varying degrees to promote the language development of multilingual pupils. All teachers also use a lot of pair and group work. They believe that the interaction between individuals has a crucial role for language development, which also previous research makes visible.