Thesis (M.Ed. (Mathematics Education)) -- University of Limpopo, 2022 / A classroom in which learners are afforded opportunities to engage in
meaningful mathematical discourse (Sfard, 2008) is desirable for the effective
teaching and learning of mathematics. However, engagement in mathematical
discourse requires learners to use appropriate mathematical vocabulary to think,
learn, communicate and master mathematics (Monroe & Orme, 2002). Hence, I have
undertaken this study to explore how mathematical vocabulary is used during
mathematical classroom discourse using the lens of the commognitive framework. I
chose a qualitative approach as an umbrella for the methodology with ethnography
as the research design whereby participant observation, structured interviews and
documents were used to collect data. One Grade 9 mathematics classroom with 25
learners and their mathematics teacher were purposefully selected as participants
in the study.
During data analysis, I looked at Sfard’s (2008) constructs of the
commognitive theory to analyse the data and identify the mathematics vocabulary
used in the discourse. This was followed by the use of realisation trees that I
constructed for the teacher and learners’ discourse, which I used to identify learners
thinking as either being explorative or ritualistic. Results indicate that both the
teacher and learners use mathematical vocabulary objectively with positive whole
numbers to produce endorsed narrative regulated by explorative routines. However,
with algebraic terms both positive and negative, the teacher and learners’ discourse
is mostly disobjectified, and produces narratives that are not endorsed and are
regulated by ritualistic routines. It also became evident that the mathematical
vocabulary that the teacher and learners use in the classroom discourse includes
words that are mathematical in nature and colloquial words that learners use for
mathematical meaning.
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Furthermore, learners’ responses to the given mathematics questions which
they are solving are mostly correct, hence it can be argued that the learners’
narratives were endorsed. However, their realisation trees indicates that learners
were not working with mathematical objects in their own right (Sfard, 2008) and
hence their narratives were not endorsed. I have recommended in this study, that
teachers need to be cautious when operating with entities and not separate
operations from their mathematical terms. Furthermore, the department of basic
education, during workshops should encourage educators to always request
reasons from learners substantiating their answers to questions in order to enhance
their explorative thinking.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ul/oai:ulspace.ul.ac.za:10386/4174 |
| Date | January 2022 |
| Creators | Sihlangu, Siphiwe Pat |
| Contributors | Mokwana, L., Masha, K. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | x, 167 leaves |
| Relation |
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