Session Information
24 SES 04, Exploring Text and Textbooks in Mathematics Teaching and Learning
Paper Session
Contribution
Much literature exists on the role of textbooks in mathematics teaching and learning in schools (Dowling, 1998; Haggarty & Pepin, 2002; Harries & Sutherland, 1998; Howson, 1995; Macintyre & Hamilton, 2010; Nie et al., 2013; Valverde, Bianchi, Wolfe, Schmidt, & Houang, 2002). In Ireland, research on mathematics textbooks is limited to only a few studies (Mulryan, 1984; NCCA, 2005, 2008; O' Keeffe, 2013) which is surprising given that “in most classrooms they are the physical tools most intimately connected to teaching and learning” (Valverde et al., 2002 p.2). Concerns about student outcomes in mathematics give rise to recommendations about what to teach in schools and how to teach it. Advocates of reform recognise the potential of textbooks in influencing classroom practice and subsequent student achievement.
This research paper examines the role of mathematics textbooks and worksheets drawing on Bernstein’s principles of description – the concepts of classification and framing. The concept of framing describes control as it is applied to pedagogic action within the mathematics classroom. A consideration of framing enables the analysis to focus on the selection of knowledge and the way knowledge is recontextualised into teaching forms. It also facilitates an examination of control as it produces social relations, conceived here as the type of pedagogic relation between teacher and students, together with the social structuring of learning tasks. The learning actions achieved by students and the type of regulation, or control, the pedagogic discourse has over students will be explored through classrooms episodes. Teachers’ framing of mathematical tasks and its effects on students’ learning activities will also be examined. Classification not only specialises knowledge (by classifying it into disciplines), it also gives rise to interruptions in social space. Classification affixes social labels to spaces and assigns places (such as ‘good’, ‘weak’, ‘competent’, ‘gifted’). At the level of pedagogic action within the classroom, classification can be retranslated by individuals (teachers and students) into perceptions. Classification is concretely retranslated into forms of self-confidence or insecurity, impacting on the extent to which students direct their attention and efforts towards classroom tasks or shaping what they come to expect from the learning situation.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Bernstein, B. (1964). "Elaborated and Restricted Codes": Their social origins and some consequences. In J. J. Gumperz & D. Hymes (Eds.), Ethnography of Communication, American anthropologist. Bernstein, B. (1971). Class, Codes and Control: Theoretical studies towards a sociology of language (Vol. 1): Routledge Bernstein, B. (1973). Class, Codes and Control: Applied studies towards a sociology of language (Vol. 2): Routledge. Bernstein, B. (1977). Class and Pedagogies: Visible and invisible. In B. Bernstein (Ed.), Class, codes and control (Revised ed., Vol. 3, pp. 116-156). Bernstein, B. (1990). The structuring of pedagogic discourse (Vol. 4). London: Routledge & Keegan Paul. Bernstein, B. (1996a). Pedagogy, symbolic control and identity. London: Taylot and Francis. Bernstein, B. (1996b). Pedagogy, symbolic control and identity: Theory, research and critique. London & New York: Taylor & Francis. Bernstein, B. (2000). Pedagogy, symbolic control and identity: Theory, research, critique (Revised ed.): Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. Bernstein, B. (2003). Class, Codes and Control: Towards a theory of educational transmission (Vol. 3): Routledge. Dowling, P. (1996). A sociological analysis of school mathematics texts. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 31, 389-415. Haggarty, L., & Pepin, B. (2002). An investigation of mathematics textbooks and their use in English, French and German clasrooms: Who gets an opportunity to learn what? British Educational Research Journal, 28(4), 567-590. Harries, T., & Sutherland, R. (1998). A comparison of primary mathematics textbooks from five countries with particular focus on the treatment of number. Qualifications and Curriculum Authority Final Report. Lesh, R., & Lehrer, R. (2000). Iterative refinement cycles for videotape analyses of conceptual change. In A. L. Kelly & R. A. Lesh (Eds.), Handbook of research design in mathematics and science education: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc. Macintyre, T., & Hamilton, S. (2010). Mathematics learners and mathematics textbooks: A question of identity? Whose curriculum? Whose mathematics? Curriculum Journal, 21(1), 3-23.
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