This thesis is a qualitative case study of a mathematics unit and a literature unit taught
concurrently to a class of grades five and six students, the majority of who were English as a
Second Language (ESL) students. The units were collaboratively planned with an ESL
Resource Teacher. The study aims to illuminate the processes and products of student
engagement with the two units. At the same time, it documents the teacher/ researcher's
process of reflection. The study makes reference to the teacher/researcher's growing
understanding of the role that prior knowledge plays in the classroom. For the teacher/
researcher, this study acted as a "voyage of discovery" as he made observations regarding the
student's experiences and the role of prior knowledge. Students experienced considerable
success with the literature unit, but had persistent difficulties with the mathematics unit. To
investigate the reasons for this difference, concerning this difference in success, the
researcher explored two matters of prior knowledge: prior classroom experience and the link
between everyday language and technical language in student discourse. With respect to
prior classroom experience, the students reported little prior teaching of relevant
mathematical material whereas the literature material had regularly been taught. With respect
to the link between everyday and technical language, the findings suggested that the students
were able to draw on everyday language for describing persons in the literature unit, but were
not able to draw on everyday language for describing patterns in the mathematics unit. More
broadly, this suggests that students were able to draw on familiar social practices for
describing persons but not for describing mathematical patterns. Implications are drawn for
further research and for educational practice.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/10605 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Evans, Peter D. |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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