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Recent scholarly work in mathematics education has included a focus on learning mathematics with understanding (Hiebert & Carpenter, 1992; Hiebert et al., 1997; Fennema & Romberg, 1999; National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 2000). Hiebert et al. (1997) discussed two processes that they suggested increase understanding and that are central to this study: reflection and communication. Learning mathematics with understanding requires that the students create a deeper knowledge of mathematics through reflection and communication. The environment in which such learning can take place must include patterns of behavior, known as social norms that promote deeper thinking. When the social norms encourage reflection and communication among the members of the classroom community, or supports learning with understanding, it becomes what I term a productive discourse community. The purpose of this study is to find out what a teacher does to create and maintain a productive discourse community where students can reason and learn with understanding. To accomplish this purpose, this research asks the following question: In what ways does the teacher in the study direct mathematical discourse in order to facilitate understanding? To answer this research question, data was gathered from eight class periods. The classroom discourse was analyzed and six discourse generating tools were found to be used by the teacher: (1) using lower-order questions to engage students, (2) persisting in eliciting students' reasoning, (3) encouraging as many student participations as possible, (4) encouraging students to analyze and evaluate each other's comments, (5) encouraging students to share as many strategies as possible and (6) using a focusing discourse pattern. There were also three social norms found to be established in the classroom at the time of the data collection. These norms are: all students are expected to (a) participate (b) share their reasoning when called upon, and (c) listen to, analyze, and evaluate each other's comments. Through further analysis, it was found that the six discourse generating tools reinforced the social norms, while the social norms supported the six discourse generating tools. Thus creating an environment where reflection and communication occurred in a way that promoted learning mathematics with understanding.

Denna studie undersöker hur elever upplever lärandet av engelska som andraspråk jämfört med hur lärare upplever elevers lärande. Undersökningar visar att elever har olika inlärningsstilar och preferenser för dessa. Detta betyder i så fall att elever använder olika metoder för att lära. Studien fokuserar på hur elever upplever och reflekterar kring sin inlärning och sina inlärningsmiljöer samt att de ger förslag på förbättringar som de önskar göra. Lärare ger också sina synpunkter på vad de tror fungerar bäst för elevers inlärning och vad de tror att elever anser om sina inlärningsmiljöer. Studien är explorativ och genomfördes med hjälp av enkäter, de innehöll frågor som var "open-ended". Enkäterna delades till elever och lärare i tre klasser på en högstadieskola. Resultatet av studien visar att för att lärande skall infinna sig, måste det finnas en ömsesidig förståelse för inlärningsprocessen mellan lärare och elever. Slutligen visar studien att elever har oilka preferenser när det gäller inlärningsstilar och därför bör lärare vara medvetna om dessa för att kunna facilitera elevers inlärningsprocess. / This study looks at how pupils perceive and their learning of the English language, juxtaposed to what the teachers believe about the pupils’ learning. Sometimes, it is taken for granted that the methods and the way a teacher goes about teaching pupils is the best way to go about a lesson. However, research shows that pupils tend to have a learning style preference which means that a method that works for one pupil is not necessarily the one that works for other pupils. The focus in this study is on how pupils feel about their learning and their learning environments as they give suggestions on improvements they wish to make. The teachers also discuss means they believe work best for their pupils and what they think their pupils feel about their learning environments. The study is an explorative one and was carried out through the use of questionnaires with open-ended questions. The questionnaires were distributed to pupils and their teachers in three English classes at one upper secondary school. In conclusion, it is discussed that for any learning to take place, there has to be a mutual understanding of the learning process. This study brings to light that pupils have learning preferences, therefore teachers have to be aware of these in order to facilitate the learning process.

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Current teacher education research calls for investigation of the "missing paradigm," the connection between teachers' conceptions of knowledge and learning and their instructional practices. This call has been heeded in the scholarship on personal epistemology that reveals the role of knowledge in learning and instruction within and across various socio-cultural contexts. This study extends the work on the relationship between teachers' personal epistemologies and instructional practices to a previously unexamined population: international and U.S. Teaching Assistants (TAs). Employing a two-phase explanatory mixed methods approach, this study examines the relationship between personal epistemologies and instructional practices of two teaching assistant (TA) groups, international and U.S.-born, in U.S. university contexts. In the first phase of the study, an epistemological beliefs survey was conducted with two groups of TAs, 106 international and 50 U.S.-born, at four large research universities in the Mid-Atlantic States. Their answers were analyzed with a focus on the relationship between group variables and seven dimensions of personal epistemologies. Building on the initial quantitative study results, in the second phase, a qualitative case study was carried out to investigate the relationship between epistemic positions and teaching practices for four TAs representing international and domestic TA groups within two academic disciplines at a public research university in Philadelphia, PA. Forty four undergraduate student data from focus-group interviews and surveys also were collected to examine the relationship between TAs' instructional practices and student opinions about their teaching. The quantitative results showed a significant group difference in the knowledge beliefs domain and the relational views domain (p < .001). In general, ITAs held a higher degree in their beliefs about certainty of knowledge than did US TAs. In addition, US TAs assumed a closer relationship with their students than did the ITAs, while unlike common assumptions, US TAs assumed a higher degree of status differentiation from students than did ITAs. The findings of the qualitative phase of the study revealed that the relationship between TAs' epistemic positions and instructional practices was not fully consistent. In the case of the US TAs, much of the inconsistency of the relationship is explained by the lack of pedagogical knowledge and pedagogic skills, which would enable them to exercise control over the types of instructional approaches that they wanted to implement at a discourse level in class. ITAs' instructional practices were more closely aligned with learning strategies that they had developed through educational experiences in their home countries and with their generalized assumptions about attitudes of U.S. students toward learning. The results also show that ITAs are as qualified and competent instructors in teaching of undergraduate students as US TAs are, and that ITAs' teacher-centered approaches are well received by the students who expect explanation, guidance, direction, and reinforcement on the part of their instructors. In addition, the analysis of TAs' epistemic positions revealed domain specificity as well as group differences to be major compounding factors affecting TAs' professed epistemologies. Pedagogic as well as theoretical implications of the study are discussed. / CITE/Language Arts

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The aim of the study was to investigate classroom discourse among high school natural science students in Swaziland. The research problem was: Can student interactions tell us something about the negotiation of understanding during natural science teaching? A qualitative approach was used, specifically, the observational case study style. The population comprised three Form 4 students and their natural science teacher, purposely selected. Data was collected using the non-participant observation and the standardised open-ended interview methods. The collected data was analysed using the discourse analysis approach. The analysed data indicated that prevailing discourse patterns were teacher and student talk, as well as written work. A conclusion was that student classroom discourse in the natural sciences should be encouraged among all students for improved understanding and meaning making. / Science and Technology Education / M. Ed. (Natural Science Education)

This doctoral dissertation is an empirical qualitative research study on the emergence of learnables in classrooms of Swedish as a second language. It adopts a dialogical and praxeological approach, and analysis is based on video recorded teacher-student interactivities in classrooms. Learnables are taken to be linguistic items or constructs that are displayed as unknown by students, or problematized by students or teachers, and therefore oriented to as explainable, remediable, or improvable. Learnables are introduced in planned or less planned classroom activities, either in passing, while continuing the current main activity, or in sidesequences. In these activities, teachers and students not only talk, but also use other embodied resources (e.g. pointing) or available artifacts (e.g. worksheets) to highlight linguistic learnables. Teachers and students use these resources for achieving and maintaining intersubjectivity as well as contributing learnables to the interactivities. Through manifest embodied practices, abstract linguistic learnables become objectified, and knowledge about them gets organized in and through joint co-operative activities. / Denna avhandling är en empirisk, kvalitativ studie om uppkomsten av s.k. ”learnables” i svenska som andraspråksutbildning. Studien antar ett dialogiskt och praxeologiskt perspektiv, och analysen baseras på video-inspelade lärare-elevinteraktiviteter i klassrummet. ”Learnables” utgörs av språkliga objekt eller konstruktioner, som hanteras som obekanta av elever, eller som problematiseras av elever eller lärare, och därför orienteras emot som objekt som kan förklaras, korrigeras eller förbättras. ”Learnables” kan uppstå i planerade eller mindre planerade klarssrumsaktiviteter, antingen i förbigående, samtidigt som huvudaktiviteten fortsätter utan avbrott, eller i sidosekvenser. I dessa aktiviteter använder lärare och elever inte bara talspråk, utan även andra kroppsliga resurser (t.ex. pekningar) eller tillgängliga artefakter (t.ex. papper) för att fokusera på språkliga ”learnables”. Lärare och elever använder dessa medel för att uppnå och bibehålla intersubjektivitet, samt för att bidra med ”learnables” till interaktiviteterna. Genom konkreta kroppsliga metoder blir abstrakta, språkliga ”learnables” objektifierade och kunskapen om dem organiseras i och genom deltagarnas koordinerade handlingar.

<p>Cilj istraživanja je da pokažem prisustvo<br />implicitne rodne diskriminacije u skrivenom<br />kurikulumu osnovne &scaron;kole tokom<br />komunikacije između nastavnica i učenika i<br />učenica u razredu na srpskom jeziku (u kojem<br />postoje jasni jezički znaci za obeležje roda) i na<br />mađarskom jeziku (koji ne poznaje kategoriju<br />roda u tipolo&scaron;kom sistemu jezika).<br />Teorijski okvir čini teorija iz rodnih studija o<br />vi&scaron;estrukim identitetima (Batler 2010 [1990],<br />2001 [1993] ) i &bdquo;činjenje roda&ldquo; (West,<br />Zimmerman 1987), u kojem se analiza diskursa<br />afirmi&scaron;e kao najpogodnija.<br />Hipoteza je da je implicitna rodna<br />diskriminacija deo skrivenog diskursa i<br />eksplicitne diskursne upotrebe jezika nastavnica<br />u razredu.<br />Korpus empirijskih podataka čine: 1.<br />razgovor u razredu (transkripti video i audio<br />zapisa dva &scaron;kolska časa maternjeg jezika u<br />srpskom i mađarskom odeljenju 8. razreda u<br />dve osnovne &scaron;kole u Subotici); 2. tekstovi<br />nastavnih programa i čitanki za isti razred<br />srpskog jezika (kao maternjeg i nematernjeg) i<br />mađarskog (kao maternjeg) 3. neverbalno i<br />verbalno pona&scaron;anje učenika i učenica na<br />&scaron;kolskoj priredbi (dva video zapisa snimljena<br />na Danu &scaron;kole u dvojezičnoj osnovnoj &scaron;koli sa<br />nastavom na srpskom i mađarskom jeziku).<br />Rezultati pokazuju da: 1. nastavni čas<br />strukturiraju i vode nastavnice - njima pripada<br />govoreni prostor u oba odeljenja, postoje<br />razlike u njihovim diskursnim strategijama<br />(oslovljavanju, prekidanjima, preklapanjima)<br />prema učenicima i učenicama. 2. Rodno<br />osteljiva analiza nastavnih planova i čitanki<br />nije konstatovala integraciju rodne<br />ravnopravnosti u udžbeničke koncepcije i<br />sadržaje, nego potvrđuje rodne stereotipe i<br />implicitnu i eksplicitnu diskriminaciju po<br />polu/rodu; 3. Analiza sadržaja i oblika</p><p>osnovno&scaron;kolskih godi&scaron;njih priredbi potvrđuje<br />da je koncepcija priredbi u funkciji razvijanja<br />multikulturalizma, ali dijalog kultura izostaje.<br />Hipoteza je potvrđena.<br />Zaključujem da razgovor u razredu utiče na<br />formiranje rodnih, jezičkih i kulturnih identiteta<br />učenika i učenica po rodu kao komponenti<br />njihovog identiteta. Zato u dvojezičnim<br />&scaron;kolama treba organizovani posebne oblike<br />nastavnih sadržaja, strukture časa, razgovornog<br />i pisanog materijala kojim bi se ove kategorije<br />vrednosti i pona&scaron;anja i jezički uobličavali za<br />potrebe rodnog identiteta. Preporuka je da oni<br />koji kreiraju obrazovne politike i kurikulume za<br />obrazovanje nastavničkog kadra kao i autori_ke<br />nacionalnih kurikuluma za &scaron;kole i udžbenika<br />podignu svest o važnosti neposredne interakcije<br />u razredu.</p> / <p>The aim of the research is to show the<br />existence of implicit gender discrimination in the<br />hidden curriculum in primary education that is<br />reflected in the interaction between the teachers<br />and the pupils in the classes taught in Serbian<br />(with clear grammar gender markers) and<br />Hungarian (which does not recognize the gender<br />categories).<br />The theoretical framework is based on the<br />theory of multiple identities in gender studies<br />(Batler 2010 [1990], 2001 [1993]) and &ldquo;doing<br />gender&rdquo; (West, Zimmerman 1987), where<br />discourse analysis is considered to be the most<br />suitable tool for investigation of this topic.<br />The paper starts from the hypothesis that the<br />implicit gender-based discrimination is part of<br />the hidden classroom discourse and the explicit<br />language used by teachers in the classroom<br />setting.<br />The corpus consists of: 1.a classroom talk<br />(the fine transcript of two video and audio<br />recordings of mother tongue lessons in Serbian<br />and Hungarian classes made in the eighth grade<br />in two primary schools in Subotica), 2. texts<br />taken from the curricula and the eighth grade<br />textbooks used in classes in Serbian (taught<br />either as a mother tongue or a second language)<br />and Hungarian (taught as mother tongue); 3.<br />nonverbal and verbal behaviour of pupils during<br />the school events (two video recordings made<br />during &ldquo;The School Day&rdquo; in a bilingual primary<br />school where teaching is conducted in both<br />Serbian and Hungarian).<br />The results of the empirical investigation are<br />as follows: 1. classes in both classrooms were<br />structured and led by teachers &ndash; classroom<br />interaction time was mostly taken by teachers.<br />Also, certain differences have been identified<br />concerning the teacher-pupil discourse strategies<br />in terms of addressing pupils, interruptions and<br />overlaps; 2. the gender sensitive analysis of curricula and textbooks has shown that gender<br />equality principle is not their integral part.<br />Instead, textbooks reflect gender bias and<br />discrimination by gender/sex; 3. the analysis of<br />the types and content of school events has shown<br />that although these events were aimed at<br />developing multiculturalism, the dialogue<br />between cultures was missing.<br />Therefore, the hypothesis has been<br />confirmed.<br />It has been concluded that classroom<br />interaction influences the formation of gender,<br />linguistic and cultural identities of both female<br />and male pupils. Hence, bilingual schools should<br />pay attention to class structure, devising specific<br />teaching contents, and creating spoken and<br />written materials which would help to develop<br />the aforementioned values and types of<br />behaviour. The general recommendation is that<br />educational policy makers as well as national<br />curriculum and textbook authors should make<br />effort to raise awareness about the importance of<br />immediate classroom interaction.</p>