‘Re’-presenting qualitative data from multilingual mathematics classrooms

In this paper I consider what it means to ‘re’-present qualitative data from multilingual mathematics classrooms. I draw from a recent study that focused on language practices in multilingual mathematics classrooms to explore the different levels involved in the ‘re’-presentation of multilingual data. The purpose of the paper is not to discuss the details of the study but to use data from the study to raise the awareness of the conceptual underpinnings of data re-presentation in mathematics education research. I use the data to show one perspective to ‘re’-presentation of multilingual data. The main argument of the paper is that ‘re’-presentation of multilingual data is not just talk written down, it is inevitably a process of selection and is informed by theory, research questions, tools of analysis and the purposes of re-presenting the data.     

Observing mathematical fluency through students’ oral responses

‘Procedural’ fluency in mathematics is often judged solely on numerical representations. ‘Mathematical’ fluency incorporates explaining and justifying as well as producing correct numerical solutions. To observe mathematical fluency, representations additional to a student’s numerical work should be considered. This paper presents analysis of students’ oral responses. Findings suggested oral responses are important vantage points from which to view fluency – particularly characteristics harder to notice through numerical work such as reasoning. Students’ oral responses were particularly important when students’ written (language) responses were absent/inconsistent. Findings also revealed the importance of everyday language alongside technical terms for observing reasoning as a fluency characteristic. Students used high modality verbs and language features, such as connectives, to explain concepts and justify their thinking. The results of this study purport that to gain a fuller picture of students’ fluency, specifically their explanations or reasoning, students’ oral responses should be analyzed, not simply numerical work.     

‘New mathematics’ and teaching

Inside the scientific world it is not always understood that the mood of mathematics, which is a product and a part of culture, can change with time. This is partly why many have been surprised by the coming of the so‐called new mathematics.

In the truly creative mathematical mind two opposite tendencies coexist: the logical and the imaginative. Apparently it seems that new mathematics can be reduced to a purely logical machinery. In fact it contains as much imaginative contributions as classical mathematics. But it is difficult to show simultaneously the logical sequence of propositions and the clumsy progression of research itself. Mathematical exposition does not always follow the ‘ most natural slopes’ of the mind. Unfamiliar presentations often give an impression of ‘ abstraction ‘, more familiar ones an impression of concreteness ‘.

So it appears that difficulties with new mathematics are mostly of psychological origin. Misuses of it can easily raise up intolerance reactions and emotional blocks. Perhaps insisting upon the fact that, here as elsewhere, it is important to be able to guess, to realize that intuition and imagination are essential, could help to make new mathematics better understood, more useful and more able to be considered as a unifing element among sciences.     

Students’ multilingual repertoires-in-use for meaning-making: Contrasting case studies in three multilingual constellations

Mathematics education for multilingual classrooms calls for instructional approaches that build upon students’ multilingual resources. However, so far, students’ multilingual resources and the interplay of their components have only partly been disentangled and rarely compared between different multilingual contexts. This article suggests a conceptualization of multilingual repertoires-in-use as characterized by (a) what students use of certain languages, registers, and representations as sources for meaning-making in mathematics classrooms and (b) their processes of how they connect certain languages, registers, and representations. This qualitative learning-process study compares students’ multilingual repertoires-in-use in three contexts: Spanish-speaking foreign language learners of German in Colombia, Turkish- and German-speaking students born in Germany, and Arabic-speaking German language beginners recently immigrated to Germany. The analysis reveals the biggest differences not only in what the students use, but how they connect languages, registers, and representations. Some of these differences can partly be traced back to different classroom cultural practices. These findings suggest extending the conceptual framework for multilingual repertoires-in-use and including it in a social theoretical perspective. Thus, these findings have important practical consequences for multilingual mathematics classrooms: The instructional approach of relating languages, registers, and representations needs to be applied more flexibly, taking into account students’ different starting points. When doing so, students’ connection processes should be supported and explicated more systematically in order to fully exploit the students’ repertoires.     

The history of mathematics as a coupling link between secondary and university teaching

During the years they spend in university, many mathematics students develop a very poor conception of mathematics and its teaching. This fact is bad in all cases, but even more in the case of those students who will be mathematics teachers in school. In this paper it is argued that the history of mathematics may be an efficient element to provide students with flexibility, open-mindedness and motivation towards mathematics. The theoretical background of this work relies both on recent research in mathematics education and on papers written by mathematicians of the past. Opinions are supported with examples. One example concerns a historical presentation of ‘definition’; it was developed with mathematics students who will become mathematics teachers. For students oriented to research or to applied mathematics, an example is presented to address the problem of the secondary-tertiary transition.     

Language and communication in mathematics education: an overview of research in the field

Within the field of mathematics education, the central role language plays in the learning, teaching, and doing of mathematics is increasingly recognised, but there is not agreement about what this role (or these roles) might be or even about what the term ‘language’ itself encompasses. In this issue of ZDM, we have compiled a collection of scholarship on language in mathematics education research, representing a range of approaches to the topic. In this survey paper, we outline a categorisation of ways of conceiving of language and its relevance to mathematics education, the theoretical resources drawn upon to systematise these conceptions, and the methodological approaches employed by researchers. We identify four broad areas of concern in mathematics education that are addressed by language-oriented research: analysis of the development of students’ mathematical knowledge; understanding the shaping of mathematical activity; understanding processes of teaching and learning in relation to other social interactions; and multilingual contexts. A further area of concern that has not yet received substantial attention within mathematics education research is the development of the linguistic competencies and knowledge required for participation in mathematical practices. We also discuss methodological issues raised by the dominance of English within the international research community and suggest some implications for researchers, editors and publishers.     

Mathematical under-preparedness: the influence of the pre-tertiary mathematics experience on students’ ability to make a successful transition to tertiary level mathematics courses in Ireland

Internationally, the consequences of the ‘Mathematics problem’ are a source of concern for the education sector and governments alike. Growing consensus exists that the inability of students to successfully make the transition to tertiary level mathematics education lies in the substantial mismatch between the nature of entrants’ pre-tertiary mathematical experiences and subsequent tertiary level mathematics-intensive courses. This paper reports on an Irish study that focuses on the pre-tertiary mathematics experience of entering students and examined its influence on students’ ability to make a successful transition to tertiary level mathematics. Brousseau's ‘didactical contract’ is used as an intellectual tool to uncover and describe the contract that exists in two case mathematics classrooms in Irish upper secondary schools (Senior Cycle). Although the authors are professional mathematics educators and well informed about classroom practice in Ireland, they were genuinely surprised by the very restrictive nature of this contract and the damaging consequences for students’ future mathematical education.     

Mathematics,Science of Possibility ‐‐ A Critical Review

This paper supports the view that search for the applicative standpoint in mathematical education has yet to be sufficiently exploited. Mathematical propositions are considered to have both an ‘internal’ and ‘external’ role and thus a system of ‘potential models’ is evolved. Despite the stress on the applicative nature of the subject it is argued in conclusion that the position in the body of the paper is compatible with the synthetic apriority of mathematics.

     

To what extent are students expected to participate in specialised mathematical discourse? Change over time in school mathematics in England

ABSTRACT

From a discursive perspective, differences in the language in which mathematics questions are posed change the nature of the mathematics with which students are expected to engage. The project The Evolution of the Discourse of School Mathematics (EDSM) analysed the discourse of mathematics examination papers set in the UK between 1980 and 2011. In this article we address the issue of how students over this period have been expected to engage with the specialised discourse of school mathematics. We explain our analytic methods and present some outcomes of the analysis. We identify changes in engagement with algebraic manipulation, proving, relating mathematics to non-mathematical contexts and making connections between specialised mathematical objects. These changes are discussed in the light of public and policy domain debates about ‘standards’ of examinations.     

Pupils’ attitudes towards mathematics: a comparative study of Norwegian and English secondary students

Comparing English and Norwegian pupils’ attitude towards mathematics, in this article I develop a deeper understanding of the factors that may shape and influence ‘pupil attitude towards mathematics’, and argue for it as a socio-cultural construct embedded in and shaped by students’ environment and context in which they learn mathematics. The theoretical framework leans on work by Zan and Di Martino (The Montana Mathematics Enthusiast, Monograph 3, pp. 157–168, 2007) to elicit Norwegian and English pupils’ attitude of mathematics as they experience it in their respective environments. Whilst there were differences which could be seen to be accounted for by differently ‘figured’ environments, there are also many similarities. It was interesting to see that, albeit based on a small statistical sample, in both countries students had a positive attitude towards mathematics in year 7/8, which dropped in year 9, and increased again in years 10/11. This result could be explained and compared with other larger scale studies (e.g. Hodgen et al. in Proceedings of the British Society for Research into Learning Mathematics. 29(3), 2009). The analysis of pupils’ qualitative comments (and classroom observations) suggested seven factors that appeared to influence pupil attitude most, and these had ‘superficial’ commonalities, but the perceptions that appeared to underpin these mentions were different, and could be linked to the environments of learning mathematics in their respective classrooms. In summary, it is claimed that it is not enough to identify the factors that may shape and influence pupil attitude, but more importantly, to study how these are ‘lived’ by pupils, what meanings are made in classrooms and in different contexts, and how the factors interrelate and can be understood.     

Connecting Mathematics and Science in Undergraduate Teacher Education Programs: Faculty Voices from the Maryland Collaborative for Teacher Preparation

The study reported in this paper investigated perceptions concerning connections between mathematics and science held by university/college instructors who participated in the Maryland Collaborative for Teacher Preparation (MCTP), an NSF-funded program aimed at developing special middle-level mathematics and science teachers. Specifically, we asked (a) “What are the perceptions of MCTP instructors about the ‘other’ discipline?” (b) “What are the perceptions of MCTP instructors about the connections between mathematics and science?” and (c) “What are some barriers perceived by MCTP instructors in implementing mathematics and science courses that emphasize connections?” The findings suggest that the benefits of emphasizing mathematics and science connections perceived by MCTP instructors were similar to the benefits reported by school teachers. The barriers reported were also similar. The participation in the project appeared to have encouraged MCTP instructors to grapple with some fundamental questions, like “What should be the nature of mathematics and science connections?” and “What is the nature of mathematics/science in relationship to the other discipline?”     

Mathematics capital in the educational field: Bourdieu and beyond

Mathematics education needs a better appreciation of the dominant power structures in the educational field: Bourdieu's theory of capital provides a good starting point. We argue from Bourdieu's perspective that school mathematics provides capital that is finely tuned to generationally reproduce the social structures that serve to keep the powerful in power, while ensuring that less powerful groups are led to accept their own failure in mathematics. Bourdieu's perspective thereby highlights theoretical inadequacies in much mathematics education research, insofar as it presumes a consensus about a ‘what works agenda’ for improving achievement for all. Drawing on one case where we manufactured awkward facts, we illustrate a Bourdieusian interpretation of mathematics capital as reproductive, and the crucial role of its cultural arbitrary. We then criticise the Bourdieusian concept of ‘mathematical capital’ as the value of mathematical competence in practice and propose to extend his tools to include the contradictory ‘use’ and ‘exchange’ values of mathematics instead: we will show how this conceptualisation goes ‘beyond Bourdieu’ and helps explain how teaching-learning might (ideally) produce ‘cultural use value’ in mathematical competence, while still recognising the contradictions teachers and learners face. Finally, we suggest how critical education research generally can benefit from this theoretical framework: (1) in exposing the interest of the dominant classes; but also (2) in researching critical pedagogic alternatives that challenge orthodoxy in educational policy and practice both in mathematics education and more generally.     

Multivariate analysis using ‘and’ and ‘or’

The connectives ‘and’ and ‘or’ are potentially useful in multivariate analysis and theory construction. They are simple, logical ways to connect two or more variables together. However, until recently there has been no framework for operationalizing these connectives for continuous variables, and this lack has severely limited their use. Using fuzzy set theory as a basis for such a framework, this paper lays out the necessary tools and models to permit the use of ‘and’ and ‘or’ in multivariate analysis.Section 1 introduces conventional operators for ‘and’ and ‘or’, and Section 2 provides suitable extensions and generalizations of them. Section 3 sets out the required least-squares techniques for fitting these generalized operators to data, first in the context of ANOVA problems and then in regression contexts, for single-connective (three-variable) models. The theoretical developments and examples from real data-sets demonstrate the utility of ‘and’ and ‘or’ as a means to cell-specific interpretations of interaction effects which can also readily be translated into English. Section 4 extends these developments to multivariate, multiple-connective models and discusses issues of generalizability. The paper concludes (Section 5) with a brief discussion of remaining unsolved problems, future prospects for more sophisticated models, and computer programs.     

‘The unplanned impact of mathematics’ and its implications for research funding: a discussion-led educational activity

‘The unplanned impact of mathematics’ refers to mathematics which has an impact that was not planned by its originator, either as pure maths that finds an application or applied maths that finds an unexpected one. This aspect of mathematics has serious implications when increasingly researchers are asked to predict the impact of their research before it is funded and research quality is measured partly by its short term impact.

A session on this topic has been used in a UK undergraduate mathematics module that aims to consider topics in the history of mathematics and examine how maths interacts with wider society. First, this introduced the ‘unplanned impact’ concept through historical examples. Second, it provoked discussion of the concept through a fictionalized blog comments discussion thread giving different views on the development and utility of mathematics. Finally, a mock research funding activity encouraged a pragmatic view of how research funding is planned and funded.

The unplanned impact concept and the structure and content of the taught session are described.     

The impact of instructor pedagogy on college calculus students’ attitude toward mathematics

College calculus teaches students important mathematical concepts and skills. The course also has a substantial impact on students’ attitude toward mathematics, affecting their career aspirations and desires to take more mathematics. This national US study of 3103 students at 123 colleges and universities tracks changes in students’ attitudes toward mathematics during a ‘mainstream’ calculus course while controlling for student backgrounds. The attitude measure combines students’ self-ratings of their mathematics confidence, interest in, and enjoyment of mathematics. Three major kinds of instructor pedagogy, identified through the factor analysis of 61 student-reported variables, are investigated for impact on student attitude as follows: (1) instructors who employ generally accepted ‘good teaching’ practices (e.g. clarity in presentation and answering questions, useful homework, fair exams, help outside of class) are found to have the most positive impact, particularly with students who began with a weaker initial attitude. (2) Use of educational ‘technology’ (e.g. graphing calculators, for demonstrations, in homework), on average, is found to have no impact on attitudes, except when used by graduate student instructors, which negatively affects students’ attitudes towards mathematics. (3) ‘Ambitious teaching’ (e.g. group work, word problems, ‘flipped’ reading, student explanations of thinking) has a small negative impact on student attitudes, while being a relatively more constructive influence only on students who already enjoyed a positive attitude toward mathematics and in classrooms with a large number of students. This study provides support for efforts to improve calculus teaching through the training of faculty and graduate students to use traditional ‘good teaching’ practices through professional development workshops and courses. As currently implemented, technology and ambitious pedagogical practices, while no doubt effective in certain classrooms, do not appear to have a reliable, positive impact on student attitudes toward mathematics.     

METAPHORS AND OTHER LINGUISTIC POINTERS TO CHILDREN'S MENTAL REPRESENTATIONS

The mental representations that 6- and 7-year-old pupils form as a result of their interactions with their teacher's verbal, written, pictorial and concrete material representations has to be inferred from the language they use. In this study many pupils seem to have mental representations which capture surface characteristics of a particular teachers’ representation and use metaphoric language associated with that representation when describing their calculations. Pupils’ use of ‘you’ is characteristic of those who adopt a representation-specific procedure, whilst ‘if’ and ‘like’ are linguistic pointers to their use of generic examples to describe a procedure. Individual pupils show a preference for the same style of mental representation when describing images and procedures in mathematical and non-mathematical contexts.     

Using dynamic software in mathematics: the case of reflection symmetry

This study was carried out to examine the effects of computer-assisted instruction (CAI) using dynamic software on the achievement of students in mathematics in the topic of reflection symmetry. The study also aimed to ascertain the pre-service mathematics teachers’ opinions on the use of CAI in mathematics lessons. In the study, a mixed research method was used. The study group of this research consists of 30 pre-service mathematics teachers. The data collection tools used include a reflection knowledge test, a survey and observations. Based on the analysis of the data obtained from the study, the use of CAI had a positive effect on achievement in the topic of reflection symmetry of the pre-service mathematics teachers. The pre-service mathematics teachers were found to largely consider that a mathematics education which is carried out utilizing CAI will be more beneficial in terms of ‘visualization’, ‘saving of time’ and ‘increasing interest/attention in the lesson’. In addition, it was found that the vast majority of them considered using computers in their teaching on the condition that the learning environment in which they would be operating has the appropriate technological equipment.     

Fuzzy processes

In this paper, contributions to fuzzy probability and to differential equations with fuzzy parameters are made.After an introductory section, a review of fuzzy sets and fuzzy algebra is given in Section 2. The main new results of the investigation are contained in Section 3.In Section 3, Zadeh's definition of the probability of a ‘fuzzy event’ the average value of a fuzzy function are extended into the time domain. It is then shown that not only grades of membership, but also probabilistic processes with notions of fuzziness contained, can be defined which obey ordinary, matric, or integro-differential equations. Applications are also given in Section 3.     

Students’ experiences with mathematics teaching and learning: listening to unheard voices

This study documents students’ views about the nature of mathematics, the mathematics learning process and factors within the classroom that are perceived to impact upon the learning of mathematics. The participants were senior secondary school students. Qualitative and quantitative methods were used to understand the students’ views about their experiences with mathematics learning and mathematics classroom environment. Interviews of students and mathematics lesson observations were analysed to understand how students view their mathematics classes. A questionnaire was used to solicit students’ views with regards to teaching approaches in mathematics classes. The results suggest that students consider learning and understanding mathematics to mean being successful in getting the correct answers. Students reported that in the majority of cases, the teaching of mathematics was lecture-oriented. Mathematics language was considered a barrier in learning some topics in mathematics. The use of informal language was also evident during mathematics class lessons.     

On the process of gaining language as a resource in mathematics education

In this paper, we expand our prior work on mathematics education in contexts of language diversity by elaborating on the three perspectives on language described by Ruiz (NABE J 8(2):15–34, 1984): language-as-right, language-as-resource, and language-as-problem. We illustrate our arguments with data taken from research contexts in Catalonia-Spain and South Africa. In these two parts of the world, the language policy in education has long been an issue, with a monolingual orientation that values one language (i.e., Catalan in Catalonia and English in South Africa) over others. Throughout the introduction of specific examples of policy documents, classroom practices, and participants’ reports, our main point is that the right of using the students’ languages makes sense because it is itself more than an intrinsic human right; it is an option that potentially benefits the creation of mathematics learning opportunities. Especially for the instances of classroom practices, our examples can be considered as representative in that they point to a common situation in our data: despite the fact of the language of learning and teaching being fixed, there is room for the learners and the teacher to take or react to a decision on what language to use, with whom, and how in concrete moments of the interaction. However, on the basis of our studies and drawing on the literature in mathematics education and language diversity, we argue that language rights are not sufficiently connected to language as a pedagogical resource. The enactment of these rights is still contributing in many ways to the social and political construction of problems concerning the role of certain languages in classroom interaction. We conclude the paper by discussing some possibilities for framing language as a resource that provide effective support to all students’ learning of mathematics.