Framgångsrik kommunikation i matematikklassrummet

Abstract in English

The research for this thesis was done to examine, describe and understand the ways in which mathematical content (algebra) is communicated in classrooms. It also sought to identify the opportunities that allow successful classroom communication.

The educational design research approach in this study was used to understand the connection between teaching, communication and students’ learning. The empirical material consisted of video-recorded lessons, observations, students’ tests and teachers’ written reports of the instructions for lessons. The empirical material was analysed using concepts relating to variation theory, strong compositionality and research results found in mathematics education.

Some important findings have been found in this thesis. Communicative success is linked to a hierarchic structure of communicative events with a strong compositionality. It is also linked to the discernment of the structure of algebraic objects. This structure is a relation between para- and proto-mathematical concepts and a form of composition with a semantic character. Teachers support successful classroom communication by using research results found in mathematics education to open up patterns of variation in the critical aspects of an object of learning. Similarity is a pattern identified in this study, and it is defined as the property of two or more expressions to adapt the same meaning. Teachers also support successful classroom communication through a systematic analysis of the parts of an object of learning, relations between parts, how to relate the parts to each other in different ways, the relation between the parts, the relation between the parts and the whole as well as the relation between different wholes. Through and around tasks, teachers and students are communicating successfully or not according to the opportunities provided in the classroom to work out the meaning of the whole by understanding the meaning of the simple parts, the semantic significance of a finite number of syntactic modes of composition, and by recognizing how the whole is made up out of simple parts. If the choice/construction of tasks is focused on what may vary and what stays invariant, students’ opportunities to distinguish aspects that could lead to algebraic generalizations are improved. One of the values of this study is in the design of the project that contributes to integration of research results found in mathematics education, in teachers’ practice. In addition, a value of the study lies in its operational definition of the concept of communication, which can be used to study successful communication. Communication is a collectively performed patterned activity in which an aspect that is critical for one or more students (A) is focused on by the action of the teacher or other students (B) so that A discerns the aspects focused on by B.