Learning and Unlearning through Questioning Practices: Middle Grades Mathematics Teachers’ Transformations to Support English Learners
Keywords:
questioning, professional development, English learners, middle gradesAbstract
Questioning is recognized as a well-established aspect of good mathematics teaching, and this study draws on this instructional practice to provide multilingual learners high-level mathematics, discourse, and cognitively demanding mathematics. Three seventh grade mathematics teachers engaged in professional learning to develop their questioning practice over the course of a semester, with this research seeking to answer the following questions: 1) How did three seventh grade mathematics teachers develop their questioning practices over the course of a semester?; and 2) What opportunities did these mathematics teachers’ questioning provide for discourse, particularly for English learners? The research was framed using the concepts teacher learning and unlearning, discourse, and questioning. Qualitative data analysis of seven observations and four interviews from each teacher examined which types of questions teachers asked, how teachers’ questioning developed over time, and how students responded to questioning. The findings illustrate that teachers’ questioning strategies were fairly limited initially and that teachers rarely planned to support multilingual students. As teachers’ questioning practices developed, they asked a wider variety of questions, always wanting to ask better questions. While some of the teachers’ questioning practices changed, there were interesting developments in the teachers’ conceptions of their students, particularly related to how teachers identified multilingual students’ mathematical capabilities. Questioning created an inquiry space for teachers that allowed teachers to develop their instructional practices while also reconsidering their expectations for multilingual students both linguistically and mathematically.References
Author. (2013).
Author. (2018).
Author. (2019).
Boaler, J., & Brodie, K. (2004, October). The importance, nature, and impact of teacher questions. In Proceedings of the Twenty-Sixth Annual Meeting of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (Vol. 2, pp. 774-790).
Brodie, K. (2008). Describing teacher change: Interactions between teacher moves and learner contributions. In J. F. Mato, P. Valero, & K. Yasukawa (Eds.), Proceedings of the Fifth International Mathematics Education and Society Conference (MES5) (pp. 31-50), Albufeira, Portugal.
Cazden, C. (2001). Classroom discourse: The language of teaching and learning (2nd ed). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Celedón-Pattichis, S., & Turner, E. E. (2012). “Explícame tu Respuesta”: Supporting the development of mathematical discourse in emergent bilingual kindergarten students. Bilingual Research Journal, 35(2), 197-216. DOI: 10.1080/15235882.2012.703635
Childs, K. J., & Glenn-White, V. (2018). Posing purposeful questions through making sense of mathematical tasks. SRATE Journal, 27(2), 11-17.
Chin, C. (2007). Teacher questioning in science classrooms: Approaches that stimulate productive thinking. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 44(6), 815-843. https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.20171
Cochran-Smith, M. (2003). Learning and unlearning: The education of teacher educators. Teaching and Teacher Education, 19(1), 5-28. doi: 10.1016/S0742-051X(02)00091-4
Esquinca, A. (2013). Transfronteriza pre-service teachers managing, resisting, and coping with the demands of mathematical discourse. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 26(3), 279-300. DOI: 10.1080/09518398.2012.762474
Franke, M. L., Webb, N. M., Chan, A. G., Ing, M., Freund, D., & Battey, D. (2009). Teacher questioning to elicit students’ mathematical thinking in elementary school classrooms. Journal of Teacher Education, 60(4), 380-392. doi: 10.1177/0022487109339906
Garet, M. S., Porter, A. C., Desimone, L., Birman, B. F., & Yoon, K. S. (2001). What makes professional development effective? Results from a national sample of teachers. American Educational Research Journal, 38(4), 915-945. https://doi.org/10.3102/00028312038004915
Georgia Department of Education. (2016, July). Orange fizz experiment. In GSE grade 7 – unit 7: Ratios and proportional relationships (pp. 27-38). Retrieved from: https://www.georgiastandards.org/Georgia-Standards/Frameworks/7th-Math-Unit-3.pdf
Glesne, C. (2011). Becoming qualitative researchers: An introduction (4th ed.). New York: Addison Wesley Longman.
Hong, D. S., & Choi, K. M. (2018). Challenges of maintaining cognitive demand during the limit lessons: understanding one mathematician’s class practices. International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology, 1-27. DOI: 10.1080/0020739X.2018.1543811
Iddings, A. C. D. (2005). Linguistic access and participation: English language learners in an English-dominant community of practice. Bilingual Research Journal, 29(1), 165-183. DOI: 10.1080/15235882.2005.10162829
Illustrative Mathematics. (2017). Who’s watching what? In Lesson 15: Estimating population measures of center. Retrieved from: https://im.openupresources.org/7/teachers/8/15.html
Kazemi, E., & Stipek, D. (2009). Promoting conceptual thinking in four upper-elementary mathematics classrooms. Journal of Education, 189(1-2), 123-137. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022057409189001-209
Khisty, L.L. & Chval, K.B. (2002). Pedagogic discourse and equity in mathematics: When teachers’ talk matters. Mathematics Education Research Journal, 14(3), 154-168. doi: 10.1007/BF03217360
Lee, O., & Buxton, C. A. (2013). Teacher professional development to improve science and literacy achievement of English language learners. Theory Into Practice, 52(2), 110-117. DOI:10.1080/00405841.2013.770328
Lee, J. E., & Kim, K. T. (2016). Pre-service teachers’ conceptions of effective teacher talk: Their critical reflections on a sample teacher-student dialogue. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 93(3), 363-381. DOI: 10.1007/s10649-016-9710-y
Martin, D. B. (2015). The collective Black and “Principles to Actions.” Journal of Urban Mathematics Education, 8(1), 17-23.
Martino, A. M., & Maher, C. A. (1999). Teacher questioning to promote justification and generalization in mathematics: What research practice has taught us. The Journal of Mathematical Behavior, 18(1), 53-78. doi: 10.1016/S0732-3123(99)00017-6
Mathematics Assessment Resources Service. (2015). Designing a 3D product in 2D: A sports bag. Retrieved from: map.mathshell.org/lessons.php?unit=7305&collection=8
Mathison, S. (1988). Why triangulate?. Educational Researcher, 17(2), 13-17. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X017002013
Maxwell, J. A. (2005). Qualitative research design: An interactive approach (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
McCarthy, P., Sithole, A., McCarthy, P., Cho, J. P., & Gyan, E. (2016). Teacher questioning strategies in mathematical classroom discourse: A case study of two grade eight teachers in Tennessee, USA. Journal of Education and Practice, 7(21), 80-89.
Moje, E. B. (2008). Everyday funds of knowledge and school discourses. In Martin-Jones, M., de Mejia, A.M., Hornberger, N.H. (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Language and Education (2nd ed, pp. 341-355). New York, NY: Springer.
Moschkovich, J. (2002). A situated and sociocultural perspective on bilingual mathematics learners. Mathematical Thinking and Learning, 4(2-3), 189-212. DOI: 10.1207/S15327833MTL04023_5
Moschkovich, J. N. (2012). How equity concerns lead to attention to mathematical discourse. In B. Herbel-Eisenmann, J. Choppin, D. Wagner, & D. Pimm (Eds.), Equity in discourse for mathematics education (pp. 89-105). Dordrecht: Springer.
Moschkovich, J. (2013). Principles and guidelines for equitable mathematics teaching practices and materials for English language learners. Journal of Urban Mathematics Education, 6(1), 45-57.
Musanti, S. I., & Celedón-Pattichis, S. (2014). Promising pedagogical practices for emergent bilinguals in kindergarten: Towards a mathematics discourse community. Journal of Multilingual Education Research, 4(1), 41-62
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM). 2000. Principles and standards for school mathematics. Reston, VA: NCTM.
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM). (2014). Principles to actions: Ensuring mathematical success for all. Reston, VA: NCTM.
National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, Council of Chief State School Officers. (2010). Common core state standards mathematics. Washington, DC: National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, Council of Chief State School Officers.
Oliveira, A. W. (2010). Improving teacher questioning in science inquiry discussions through professional development. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 47(4), 422-453. DOI 10.1002/tea.20345
Paoletti, T., Krupnik, V., Papadopoulos, D., Olsen, J., Fukawa-Connelly, T., & Weber, K. (2018). Teacher questioning and invitations to participate in advanced mathematics lectures. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 98(1), 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10649-018-9807-6
Planas, N., & Gorgorió, N. (2004). Are different students expected to learn norms differently in the mathematics classroom? Mathematics Education Research Journal, 16(1), 19-40. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03217389
Sahin, A. & Kulm, G. J (2008). Sixth grade mathematics teachers’ intentions and use of probing, guiding, and factual questions. Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, 11(3), 221-241. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10857-008-9071-2.
Silver, E. A., & Stein, M. K. (1996). The QUASAR project: The "revolution of the possible" in mathematics instructional reform in urban middle schools. Urban Education, 30(4), 476-521. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085996030004006
Shein, P. P. (2012). Seeing with two eyes: A teacher's use of gestures in questioning and revoicing to engage English language learners in the repair of mathematical errors. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 43(2), 182-222. DOI: 10.5951/jresematheduc.43.2.0182
Sfard, A. (2001). There is more to discourse than meets the ears: Looking at thinking as communicating to learn more about mathematical learning. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 46(1-3), 13-57. doi:10.1023/A:1014097416157
Weiland, I. S., Hudson, R. A., & Amador, J. M. (2014). Preservice formative assessment interviews: The development of competent questioning. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 12(2), 329-352. doi:10.1007/s10763-013-9402-3.
Willey, C. (2010). Teachers developing mathematics discourse communities with Latina/os. In Proceedings of the 32nd Annual Meeting of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (pp. 530-538). Columbus, OH: The Ohio State University.
Yackel, E., & Cobb, P. (1996). Sociomathematical norms, argumentation, and autonomy in mathematics. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 27(4), 458-477. DOI: 10.2307/749877
