Session Information
24 SES 09, Characterising the Structure of the Pedagogical Language of Mathematics Teachers and Researchers in Australia, China and the Czech Republic
Symposium
Contribution
A team of four researchers and three experienced teachers classified video records of mathematics classrooms from around the world in order to identify those terms that constitute the Australian pedagogical lexicon with respect to the teaching of middle school mathematics (Grades 6, 7 and 8). These terms describe classroom practices, structures as well as activities, and in combination constitute the lexicon by which teachers and researchers discuss, analyze, reflect upon and theorize about the middle school mathematics classroom. Team consensus was required for the inclusion of a term in the lexicon and in problematic cases authority was accorded primarily to classroom experience and the team members’ capacity to argue that the term was in current use by teachers. The essential point was to record single words or short phrases that are consistently and widely used within Australia by teachers with a consistent and agreed meaning. The Australian National Lexicon consists of 69 terms that are familiar and in widespread use (e.g., Assigning Homework, Rephrasing, Worked Example). A description was constructed for each term, together with both examples and non-examples of the use of the term. Because of the role of video in stimulating the recognition of the terms, many terms could also be illustrated with video examples. The lexical items have been organized in five categories. These categories were generated in consultation with practicing teachers. Five categories were consistently identified by the practicing teachers: Administration (8 terms); Assessment (12 terms); Classroom Management (6 terms), and two additional categories were developed to capture the spirit of the teachers’ suggestions: Learning Strategy (30 terms) and Teaching Strategy (53 terms). A lexical item appeared in more than one category if the Australian team decided, by consensus, that there was a strong association with that category. An interesting feature of the Australian National Lexicon is that not one of the 69 terms identifies a practice that can only be found in the mathematics classroom. The terms all refer to general pedagogical practices. Also worthy of note is the prevalence of ‘gerunds’ (noun/verbs) in the Australian National Lexicon. This duality simultaneously invokes both object and activity. This linguistic option is not available in many other languages and highlights both the affordances of particular languages and the difficulties of translation. The Australian Lexicon content and structure reveals a great deal about how Australian mathematics teachers conceptualise the middle school mathematics classroom and its practices.
References
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