Patterns of interaction, learning opportunities, and gender in elementary school inquiry mathematics classrooms

Diana Underwood Gregg, Purdue University

Abstract

Gender differences have been studied in traditional school mathematics classrooms over the past 20 years. This study addressed the question of how a qualitative change in the nature of mathematics instruction might influence the patterns of interaction that arise in the classroom and thereby influence students' learning opportunities with respect to gender. The study examined the interaction patterns that emerged during whole-class instruction in elementary school classrooms which established an "inquiry" mathematics tradition compatible with current reform recommendations in mathematics education. A theoretical framework drawing constructs from symbolic interactionism and ethnomethodology was used to analyze transcripts of mathematics lessons from two second-grade classrooms and one third-grade classroom. Patterns of interaction and the teacher and student routines that gave rise to them were identified and analyzed in terms of students' learning opportunities and the role of gender. Although each of the three classrooms established an inquiry mathematics tradition, the typical patterns of interaction were different across the three classrooms, with corresponding differences in students' learning opportunities. In this regard, the study illustrated that, in reforming mathematics instruction, teachers' routine actions do not have to become the antithesis of those practices employed by traditional classroom teachers. Teachers can take a proactive role in classroom interactions without funneling students to a desired answer or solution or without accepting every answer or solution which is offered. As for the role of gender, no gender-related differences were found in the classroom interaction patterns or in the corresponding teacher and student routines. This was explained in part in terms of certain features of the inquiry mathematics traditions in the three classrooms. In particular, students were given the opportunity to present complete solutions without the teacher's intervention, the teachers generally refrained from evaluating the students' solutions and instead involved other students in questioning and analyzing these solutions, and the teachers and students did not engage in a one-on-one funneling to a desired answer or solution method. Finding no gender differences in the patterns of interaction, the teachers' and students' routines, and the students' learning opportunities in these three inquiry mathematics classrooms suggests that there is much potential in the current mathematics education reform movement for reducing gender inequity. Furthermore, the fact that the classrooms were located at different research sites with students of different race suggests that the gender equity in inquiry mathematics might transcend school culture.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Yackel, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Mathematics education|Elementary education

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