Conference:
ECER 2008
Format:
Symposium Paper
Session Information
03 SES 09A, Mathematics Textbooks, Mathematical Tasks and Pupil Identity: An International Perspective
Symposium
Time:
2008-09-12
10:30-12:00
Room:
B2 216
Chair:
Birgit Pepin
Discussant:
Wilmad Kuiper
Contribution
Mathematical tasks in textbooks and the mathematics classroom environments in England, France and Germany are the focus of this study. The author claims that the different mathematical tasks in textbooks (in connection with their mediation by teachers) influence, to a large extent, the differences in activities and practices that are going on in mathematics classrooms, and that these in turn mediate different kinds of learner dispositions. The classroom culture, with its differing dimensions, is likely to set the scene for pupil development as ‘learners of mathematics’.
Holland et al’s (1998) notion of identity formation in “figured worlds” is used as an analytical framework. Figured worlds are perceived here as places ‘where agents come together to construct joint meanings and activities’ (p.173). Mathematics classrooms can be regarded as such figured worlds, because students and teachers work together in these environments and construct meanings of the mathematics, and within that of themselves as learners of mathematics.
This is particularly interesting in terms of comparing “figured worlds” in different countries’ classrooms. Questions such as the following may arise: What kinds of tasks are pupils expected to perform, what kinds of activities do pupils, and teachers, engage in? What kinds of interpretations are made, what kinds of acts are respected, what kinds of outcomes are valued? The web of these connections is studied in this presentation.
References
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