This study takes a theoretical stance that relies on the notion that cognitive development is predominantly a process of learning. The study rests particularly on the Vygotskian theory that children learn within a social environment by practising cognitive skills, under expert tutelage, that they will later perform independently. If children are to develop skills in reasoning the classroom needs to be a place where reasoning skills are modelled, practised and reinforced. Certain features of interactive discourse may have the effect of emphasising the content of a discussion at the expense of the reasoning process and therefore of the practice of reasoning. This study investigated the interactive discourse of a classroom discussion that had reasoning as the sole objective of the discussion and identified the discourse features that characterised the discussion. One experimental kindergarten group and two experimental grade 1/2 groups were introduced to a reasoning-based approach using the Elfie package. A discussion, based on a children's story, was then held with these groups and with two experimental kindergartens that had received no previous exposure to the reasoning-based approach. Examination was also made of the discourse features of a control kindergarten discussion and a grade 1/2 discussion. Important differences were identified between the discourse features of the control and experimental classrooms. Analyses of the experimental discussions found a lower proportion of teacher utterances that were psuedo questions, and that included evaluation of pupil comments; a higher proportion of teacher invitations to explore the logical implications of an idea; a higher proportion of pupil utterances that were in response to other pupil comments and a higher proportion of pupil utterances that included reasons. Analyses of control discussions found that the prevailing pattern of discourse involved teacher initiation (often a pseudo question) - pupil response - teacher evaluation and re-elicitation. Discussion is included about the role such a pattern plays in emphasising content at the expense of the process of reasoning.

In this embedded case study, I examined and documented discussions of literature across two literacy contexts within one multiage classroom. Further, I explored the experiences of four focal students within and across the two contexts, highlighting the affordances of each space and considering the implications of tacit rules of participation for individual students. I employed ethnographic data collection methods including field notes, audio and video recordings, semi-structured interviews, and student and teacher created artifacts. Data analysis drew on constant comparative methods as well as traditions of interactive sociolinguistics. Drawing on sociocultural theories of learning and transactional theories of reading response, the study demonstrates the ways in which talk is used as a tool for meaning-making tasks including comprehension, argumentation, and identity construction. The study highlights the purposeful and strategic instructional moves made by the classroom teachers in discussion that facilitated more complete and complex interpretations of texts. The cases of the focal students illustrate the affordances of each context as well as demonstrating the ways in which responses to literature might be leveraged to claim identity positions within the classroom. The study cultivates deeper understanding about the importance of individual contributions within discussion contexts, as well as demonstrating the ways in which children and teachers mediate meaning making in collaborative contexts. The findings suggest implications for the ways in which educators might support and draw on individual approaches to response to facilitate divergent meaning making and expansion of repertoires of response for students. In addition, the study suggests implications for the careful design and development of contexts in which children are granted interpretive authority and encouraged to engage in collaborative meaning-making. / text

This four-month-long qualitative case study looks closely at how one kindergarten teacher tried to help young children have more mathematical discussions. To discover and more deeply understand a kindergarten teacher’s ways of thinking about and facilitating mathematical discussion as part of everyday mathematical instruction, data was collected through classroom observations, semi-structured interviews, and various forms of documentation. Through data analysis in the constant-comparative method, this study found that intensive-discussion mathematics lessons could be accomplished through two pedagogical roles of the teacher. The first was creating a respectful learning environment to motivate children’s participation in mathematical discussion. The second was scaffolding student discussions to construct their own knowledge in the path of their mathematics learning. The analysis detailed here also revealed that successes and failures of discussion-intensive mathematics lessons depend on the teacher’s ability to overcome challenges she encounters while integrating mathematical discussion into her everyday lessons. The presented examples and descriptions in this study offer significant implications for early childhood teachers. This is particularly true for those who care about their young students’ mathematical development, yet either struggle to develop trusting classroom communities or do not know how to facilitate mathematical discussion. This study also provides insights into how teacher educators can help preservice teachers develop a profound understanding of mathematics teaching and learning. This highly influences their moment-by-moment decision-making to appropriately scaffold young children’s talk and learning. It offers implications for administrators about how to support early childhood teachers’ growth, learning, and their practices in teaching mathematics. / text

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This study reports middle school astronomy classes that implemented photographs and classroom response systems (CRSs) in a discussion-oriented pedagogy with a curriculum unit for the topics of day-night and cause of seasons. In the new pedagogy, a teacher presented conceptual questions with photographs, her 6th grade students responded using the CRSs, and the teacher facilitated classroom discussion based on the student responses. I collected various data: classroom observation with field-note taking and videotaping, student pre- and post-conception tests, student attitude survey and classroom short surveys, and teacher interviews. Classroom video recordings and teacher interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed with the grounded theory approach. This approach was used to analyze the open responses of the student attitude survey as well. Pre- and post- conception tests consisted of open-ended questions and they were scored based upon rubrics. Numerical data were analyzed with descriptive statistics and simple t-tests. In this study, I answered three research questions: 1) student-teacher discourses and interaction patterns while learning and teaching with the photographs and CRSs in the new pedagogy; 2) 6th grade students’ misconceptions about the concepts of day-night and cause of seasons, and their knowledge gains after they had the intervention; and 3) the students’ and the teacher’s attitude toward the new curriculum and the new pedagogy. Finally, I discuss the student-teacher interaction model and three important teacher-questionings in this pedagogy; levels of misconceptions; and the pedagogical roles of the photographs and CRSs.

In recent years many teachers and students have begun having good access to digital technology in their classrooms, and in the context of Sweden the majority of secondary schools are known as one-to-one schools, with students having their own computer or tablet. However, the mere presence of technology in the classroom is not a guarantee for improved teaching and learning. In fact, there is a challenge involved with integrating technology in the classroom and many teachers need support. Therefore, the aim of this thesis is to contribute to the knowledge about support for teachers integrating digital technology, especially a classroom response system (CRS), in the mathematics classroom. This is done by focusing on frameworks for CRS task design and technology integration. The thesis consists of two papers and a kappa. Both papers use data from a design research project including interventions in two cases. Paper I focuses on the development of design principles and task types for CRS tasks in a multiple-choice format aiming to engineer mathematical classroom discussions. The study generated three design principles, six task types, and 31 empirically evaluated tasks. The empirical evaluation shows that teachers consider the evaluated CRS tasks useful for engineering mathematical classroom discussions. Paper II focuses on exploring the potential of Ruthven’s (2009) SFCP framework as tool for analyzing empirical data in order to conceptualize and analyze teachers’ reasoning about critical aspects of technology integration in the mathematics classroom. The results show that the SFCP framework can be useful for capturing teachers’ reasoning about critical aspects of technology integration, but also that the framework does not capture teachers’ reasoning about students’ attitudes and behaviors. Therefore, the framework would benefit from taking into consideration students’ attitudes and behaviors, as these features are a challenge teachers need to deal with when integrating technology in the classroom. This thesis kappa, building on earlier research as well as the results and methods of its own papers, ends with an elaborated discussion on the challenges and support for teachers wanting to integrate CRS in their mathematics classroom. / Lärare och elever har idag god tillgång till digital teknik i klassrummen. I Sverige är numera majoriteten av högstadie- och gymnasieskolorna en-till-en skolor där alla elever har en egen dator eller surfplatta. Blotta närvaron av digital teknik i klassrummen är inte en garanti för förbättrad undervisning och ökat lärande. I själva verket så är det en utmaning att integrera digital teknik i klassrummet och många lärare behöver stöd för att lyckas med detta. Syftet med den här uppsatsen är att bidra till kunskap om stöd för lärare som integrerar digitala verktyg i matematikklassrummet. Detta görs dels genom att fokusera på ramverk för att konstruera matematikuppgifter till digitala responssystem och dels genom att undersöka ett ramverk för teknikintegrering i undervisningen. Uppsatsen består av två artiklar och en kappa. Båda artiklarna använder data från ett designforskningsprojekt bestående av interventioner i två separat fall. Artikel I fokuserar på utvecklingen av designprinciper och uppgiftstyper för flervalsuppgifter till digitala responssystem. Uppgifterna syftar till att initiera och fördjupa matematiska diskussioner i klassrummet. Studien genererade tre designprinciper, sex uppgiftstyper och 31 empiriskt utvärderade flervalsuppgifter som kan användas för att välja, värdera och konstruera uppgifter till responssystem. Den empiriska utvärderingen visar att lärarna anser att de testade uppgifterna och uppgiftstyperna är användbara för att initiera matematiska klassrumsdiskussioner. Artikel II fokuserar på att undersöka potentialen av Ruthvens (2009) ramverk ”Structuring Features of Classroom Practice” (SFCP), som ett analytiskt verktyg för att begreppsliggöra och analysera lärares resonemang om kritiska aspekter vid teknikintegrering i matematikklassrummet. Resultatet visar att ramverket är användbart för att fånga lärares resonemang om kritiska aspekter vid teknikintegrering i undervisningen, men också att ramverket inte fångade lärares resonemang om elevers attityder och uppförande. Studien föreslår att ramverket kan utvecklas och förbättras genom att även ta hänsyn till elevernas attityder och uppförande, eftersom detta är kritiska aspekter som lärare behöver hantera när de integrerar teknik i klassrummet. Med utgångspunkt från tidigare forskning och resultaten i artiklarna avslutas uppsatsens kappa med en utvecklad diskussion om utmaningar och stöd för lärare som integrerar digitala responssystem i matematikklassrummet.

Thesis advisor: Curt Dudley-Marling / This qualitative dissertation, informed by sociocultural theory (Gee, 1996; Vygotsky, 1978), examines how a fourth grade teacher and his students learned to participate in Shared Inquiry, a discussion practice where students learn how to build an evidential argument, including a claim that is supported by evidence and justified by a warrant (Toulmin, 1969). Students also learn how to weigh the merits of opposing arguments and how to modify their initial opinions as evidence demands. Over the course of ten weeks, the fourth grade teacher implemented Shared Inquiry as part of the Junior Great Books (JGB) program, offered as a supplement to a district mandated reading program. The teacher was observed while using the JGB program and while providing instruction through the mandated reading program. He participated in action research (Stringer, 2007) to examine how to make Shared Inquiry most successful. This dissertation describes how the teacher's action research enabled his students to become successful with Shared Inquiry, after they initially struggled with the practice. Over time, they learned a new way of engaging, not only with literature, but also with fellow classmates. This dissertation also describes how the fourth grade students learned a different set of literacy practices through the mandated reading program. The argument is made that Shared Inquiry has the potential to be a far more substantively engaging (Nystrand, 2006; Nystrand & Gamoran, 1991, 1997) literacy practice compared to the mandated reading program. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2011. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.

This study investigated teacher questioning practices and rationales in released-time seminary classes for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Church of Jesus Christ or the Church). Seminary teachers focus their questions on helping students learn course principles, value those principles, and apply them to their lives by discussing potential actions that can be taken by students outside of class. The purpose of this study was to observe and interview teachers relative to their questions and questioning practices in class and the reasoning and rational they explain underlying those practices. The resultant findings indicate the specific questioning principles and practices participants used to target cognitive, affective, and social/behavioral outcomes. Further, the analysis of the data yielded a descriptive model of multidimensional questioning that both describes and depicts teacher questioning in seminary and informs future instructional practice, training, and research of teacher questioning

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