Are different students expected to learn norms differently in the mathematics classroom?

Abstract

We analyse social interactions during the first days of class in a secondai T mathematics classroom (15 and 16 year olds) with a high percentage of immigrant students. Our analyses show the co existence of different models for both the interpretation and the use of classroom social norms and socio mathematical norms. Valorising some behaviours over others appears as part of the discursive practices of mathematics classrooms. Local and immigrant students are not expected to behave in the same way, nor are they treated in the same way. The teacher and some students, who are familiar with the prevailing norms, cancel certain norms for a while in such a way that some immigrant students are excluded from fully participating in the mathematical discussion.

Academic discourse practices in action: Invoking discursive norms in mathematics and language lessons

“…This time period right after enrollment in a new school was chosen because at the beginning of the school year, especially after change of school, common practices and expectations are not yet shared by all members of the classroom discourse community (cf. Planas & Gorgorió, 2004). Hence, this point in time should provide a unique window into processes of negotiating discursive norms.…”

“…Several studies have extended this work (e.g. Mottier Lopez & Allal, 2007;Planas & Gorgorió, 2004) and in particular have taken further the notion of sociomathematical norms. Since most of these studies evolved in the context of mathematics education research they were not primarily interested in the discursive, but rather in the content-related and subject-specific dimensions of norms.…”

Mathematics Teachers’ Didactic Strategies: Examining the Comparative Potential of Low Inference Generic Descriptors

“…In other words, 100 Ϫ n p 0 having engaged students in an episode of higher-order thinking, he modeled the formal solution process of an equation his students could solve mentally; this episode offers an illustration of the didactic confusion noted earlier (see Planas and Gorgorió 2004).…”

Moving forward with ethnomethodological approaches to analysing mathematics classroom interactions

“…Another example is Yackel and Cobb's (1996) sociomathematical norms, a concept that arose from an ethnomethodological approach to the analysis of interaction that is now widely used by mathematics education researchers using a variety of theoretical approaches (e.g. Planas and Gorgorió 2004). In each of these studies the focus is considered to be continuously and locally emerging, to be co-constructed by all participants through their actions in interaction.…”