The study, Mind the Gap between Grade Three and Four is written within the research fields of Mathematics Education. The research interests in the study concerns how to achieve a smooth transition between grade three and four in compulsory school. As a mathematics teacher I found out that the transition from one grade to another in compulsory school affects both the pupil and the mathematics teacher and not always in a satisfactory way. Formal meetings concerning handing over information about pupils are not sufficient, and there is a definite difference between what is said about the pupils during a formal meeting and what is said in more informal settings. Are their gaps that occur? The aim of this study is to listen to mathematics teachers´ and to illuminate their stories about handing over pupils from grade three and taking over pupils in grade four. I am searching for gaps in their stories. My goal is to safe guard the continuity concerning the changes of grades between grade three and four in compulsory school. The research questions are: What are the important factors for mathematics teacher´s concerning the transition between grade three and four? What themes and gaps concerning the transitions are revealed in their stories? The study is based on a theoretical framework made of; Gees (1999) theory about "language-in-use" and "the seven building blocks of language". Social constructions because the idea is to criticize and change the established order regarding the transition between grade three and grade four. I also made a choice to look at the difficulties concerning the transition as external factors and not as the shortcoming of the mathematics teachers´ therefore I use the critical perspective. Discourse is used because this study is about communication, both spoken and written. In order to investigate important factors for mathematics teachers concerning the transitions I interview six mathematics teachers. They are asked about the existent transition between grade three and four at their schools and what they think are important factors for transitions overall. I also videotape one formal meeting because when different methods are used it helps me verify 2 the outcome. The transcriptions from the interviews and the formal meeting are analyzed with help from the discourse analysis based on Gee (1999). The analysis/result shows themes that are important and signal about gaps that could be filled by further research. Themes revealed concerns: school organization, formal/informal meetings, teaching, assessment and special pedagogy. Gaps that are visible concern the teachers’ different educations, the school-web and the curriculum, time, relations, communication, assessment, feedback, teaching methods, teaching materials, and pupils in special needs. I argue that its´ necessary to create a structure and make guidelines for formal conferences concerning the transition between grade three and four to minimize the discontinuity. It should also be of interest that the gaps mentioned in this study are filled, and one way to begin could be to plan for collegial work between teachers’ in different grades.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:su-140578 |
| Date | January 2014 |
| Creators | Carlsson, Eva |
| Publisher | Stockholms universitet, Institutionen för matematikämnets och naturvetenskapsämnenas didaktik |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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