From the 1990ties on, large-scale international video studies have significantly advanced the discussion about quality factors of learning support in the mathematics classroom (Hiebert et al., 2003; Stigler et al., 1999). In particular the results of TIMSS 1999 Video (Hiebert et al., 2003) have suggested that very different factors can contribute to the learners’ success. There is – in an international perspective – not a simple observation pattern which allows distinguishing ‘the’ successful mathematics classroom from less successful teaching. However, by these findings, the initial hope of these video studies, namely that culture-overarching quality characteristics can be identified, has not been fulfilled satisfactorily, which calls for deepening research especially in the field of mathematics education.

An example of a study responding to this need of deepening studies is an approach with emphasis on structural clarity (Drollinger-Vetter, 2011) in a bi-national video analysis of whole-class instruction related to the Pythagorean Theorem, which contained among other a focus on the use of representations of mathematical objects in the classroom.

The way how representations are dealt with is indeed a key quality aspect of mathematics instruction (e.g. Duval, 2006; Ainsworth, 2006; Kuntze, 2013): As mathematical objects can only be accessed through representations and being able to handle them as well as to change between different representations is a core aspect of students’ mathematical competency (Ainsworth, 2006; Lesh, Post & Behr, 1987; Duval, 2006; Dreher & Kuntze, 2015a), students should be encouraged and supported to flexibly use multiple representations. However, conversions between representation registers are potentially complex for students (Ainsworth, Dreher & Kuntze 2015b), so that teachers have to help students to connect representations and to translate between them. This can be expected to be the case in particular in so-called learning support situations, in which the teacher has the possibility to react on students’ individual questions or to interact with them individually (Krammer, 2009; Schnebel, 2013). By learning support situations, we understand situations in which there is not a whole-class dialogue, but interactions between teachers and students during seat-work phases of the students, who are working on tasks on their own, in pairs or in small groups. Such learning support situations can be initiated by students, e.g. when they ask a question, or alternatively also by the teacher, e.g. when the teacher asks the student(s) or gives them a hint or feedback related to their working process. It is obvious that such interaction situations are a key opportunity for helping the students with conversions between representation registers (as they are often required by tasks) or to encourage the students to change between representations (in order to support their ability to change flexibly between representations of mathematical objects).

However so far – and despite the international relevance of these quality aspects – there is hardly any empirical evidence beyond case studies about whether and how mathematics teachers encourage their students to use multiple representations and provide them with help in learning support situations.

Consequently, the study reported here focuses on this research need. With this purpose, the study concentrates on the following research questions:

(a) What role does the use of multiple representations play in the teachers’ interaction with students in learning support situations?

(b) Do the secondary school mathematics teachers actively promote the use of multiple representations in learning support situations?

(c) In particular, do they support the change between representation registers of their students by help focused on connecting the different representation registers?

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