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Responding to Students: Enabling a Significant Role for Students in the Class Discourse

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Expertise in Mathematics Instruction

Abstract

This is a case study of a highly regarded high-school mathematics teacher in Israel. It examines the kinds of responses to students’ talk used repeatedly by the teacher, directing and shaping the classroom discourse, during different parts of the lesson. The main data source included 21 h of observations in two of this teacher’s classrooms. Analysis of the video-taped lessons showed that almost the entire whole-class work comprised of mathematical activity that was triggered by, built or followed on, students’ talk. This was mainly due to the teacher’s responsiveness to students. The most common teacher response was elaborating. Accompanying talk occurred considerably less, and the teacher rarely expressed puzzlement or opposition when responding to students’ talk. The chapter demonstrates how the teacher combined her attention to students’ talk, with the goal of making progress on the main topic.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Science Teaching, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel

    Ruhama Even

  2. Orot Israel College, Rehovot, Israel

    Orly Gottlib

Authors
  1. Ruhama Even
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  2. Orly Gottlib
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Correspondence to Ruhama Even .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. Teaching, Learning & Culture, Texas A & M University, College Station, 77843-4232, Texas, USA

    Yeping Li

  2. FB Erziehungswissenschaft, Inst. Didaktik der Mathematik, Universität Hamburg, Von Melle Park 8, Hamburg, 20146, Germany

    Gabriele Kaiser

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Even, R., Gottlib, O. (2011). Responding to Students: Enabling a Significant Role for Students in the Class Discourse. In: Li, Y., Kaiser, G. (eds) Expertise in Mathematics Instruction. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-7707-6_6

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