Proving in Geometry: A Sociocultural Approach to Constructing Mathematical Arguments Through Multimodal Literacies

Abstract

Multimodal literacies have been incorporated as social learning practices in content areas, but research regarding multimodality within secondary mathematics instruction has often lacked the sociocultural lens. The author describes practitioner action research in the form of a case study (with one focal participant) from a public high school. The author explored the use of multimodal literacies through geometry students’ projects, work samples, classroom videos, and interviews. Students created and presented arguments (through PowerPoint, Word, videos, and storybooks) on court cases in efforts to relate proving and justifying in geometry to evidence and claims in court. Findings reveal ways that multimodal literacies served as a vehicle for students to engage with their social context of learning in a mathematics classroom, demonstrating that sociocultural approaches to multimodal literacies can apprentice students into disciplinary literacy practices of mathematics. Moreover, these sociocultural perspectives toward multimodal literacies pose possible instructional applications in multiple content areas.

Multimodal Literacies in Elementary Teacher Education: Facilitating Culturally Relevant Pedagogy with Mathematics

“…Multimodal literacies are shown to be valuable resources for integrating student identity with learning in diverse contexts (Kelly, 2012;Taylor, 2018). This study confirms multimodal literacies were a vehicle to negotiate connections between TCs own mathematics learning experiences and CRP in mathematics instruction.…”

“…These and other studies affirm the need to tactfully consider, value, and acknowledge the multiple identities of TCs while they learn conceptual elementary mathematics alongside elementary mathematics pedagogy (Lutovac, 2020;Lutovac & Kaasila, 2014). Further, research in elementary mathematics teacher education problematizes how teachers frequently instruct mathematics the same way they were taught (Blanco et al, 2013), and how mathematics instruction generally involves decontextualized and procedural methods lacking a sociocultural lens (Taylor, 2018). Relatedly, studies demonstrate that students and teachers can often resist notions of incorporating or validating culture in mathematics and dismiss possibilities for relevant associations and connections of culture with mathematics content.…”

“…Thus, mathematics instruction is inherently multimodal (Arzarello & Robutti, 2010;Daher, 2014;Freeman et al, 2016). Nonetheless, not all educators recognize the value and/or nature of multimodal literacies and how influential they may be in cultivating CRP in STEM subjects (Hsu et al, 2013;Taylor, 2018;Youngjoo & Jayoung, 2015). There is a significant dearth in research around multimodal literacies in higher education, specifically with teacher preparation (Cardoso, 2017).…”

Learning Model Inquiry-Based Local Wisdom Dilemmas Stories and Their Effects on Critical Thinking and Scientific Writing Abilities

“…The inquiry model is based on local wisdom dilemmas stories to overcome the weaknesses of inquiry so that, in learning scientific writing material in formulating problems and collecting student data, the theme remains consistent with local wisdom dilemmas stories. Learning based on local wisdom dilemmas stories is recommended in language learning to improve critical thinking abilities (Martínez & Mejía, 2020;Smith et al, 2020;Taylor, 2018). This study believes that cultivating local wisdom values dilemmas stories will succeed if supported by the surrounding socio-cultural environment (Adhikari et al, 2017;Scott-Weich & Yaden, 2017).…”

Rethinking the Role of Knowledge in the Literacy Classroom

“…Thus, students must be able to integrate across modalities; that is, they need the skills and strategies required to interpret and combine linguistic and nonlinguistic information within texts if they are to comprehend well (New London Group, 1996). These abilities are important across the content areas (Cervetti, Barber, Dorph, Pearson, & Goldschmidt, 2012; Shreiner, 2018; Taylor, 2018). For example, a teacher might draw students’ attention to erosion occurring within the school grounds and show them pictures and maps of the Dust Bowl (Alvermann & Wilson, 2011).…”