Exploring the practices of selecting and sequencing strategies for whole-class discussions
- UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
- Amy Hewitt (Creator)
- Institution
- The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
- Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
- Advisor
- Victoria Jacobs
Abstract: This study focused on the practices of selecting and sequencing student strategies for whole-class discussions with teachers working toward a vision of teaching that is responsive to students’ mathematical thinking. In responsive teaching, students’ thinking about mathematical ideas is central, and instruction is shifted from how teachers think about mathematics to students’ thinking about mathematics. Whole-class discussions are the time in many lessons when teachers are explicitly focused on eliciting and building on students’ thinking. In these discussions, teachers typically showcase one or more student strategies and then facilitate a conversation that explores the mathematics in individual strategies or across strategies. Thus, purposefully selecting and sequencing the strategies to be used in whole-class discussions is important because the strategies provide the foundation for the discussions and what students have the opportunity to learn. Selecting and sequencing strategies are two of the five practices identified in Smith and Stein’s (2018) seminal work on orchestrating productive whole-class discussions, but I argue that these two practices have been underappreciated and under-researched, and implementation remains challenging for many teachers. Existing research identifies lists of general criteria for selecting and sequencing, but these criteria often lack specificity and a coherent structure thereby restricting their usefulness for teachers. My dissertation builds on this limited research by investigating the decision making of two groups of teachers engaged in the practices of selecting and sequencing. Specifically, I explored the decision making of three teachers who had demonstrated expertise in responsive teaching as they selected and sequenced strategies in their classrooms. I also explored the decision making of 30 teachers with varying levels of expertise in responsive teaching as they selected and sequenced strategies during professional development activities. Findings led to the creation of a three-level framework which showcases teachers’ criteria for selecting strategies for whole-class discussions. The levels progressively include more specificity, starting with the main criteria that apply to all mathematical content and ending with detailed criteria linked to specific mathematical content, which in this case is fractions. The framework for selecting strategies for whole-class discussions provides benefits to both researchers and practitioners. For researchers, the framework provides specificity and structure to criteria already identified in the literature, while also incorporating new criteria and elaborating on existing criteria. For practitioners, the framework criteria can inform teachers’ decision making and help them become more purposeful when selecting strategies, thereby providing students with more opportunities to learn in whole-class discussions. Further, the leveled structure of the framework makes guidance for the purposeful selection of strategies accessible and useful to teachers at any phase of their development in being responsive to students’ mathematical thinking. The framework currently includes only the practice of selecting strategies as there were insufficient patterns in teachers’ decision making about sequencing strategies to identify commonly used criteria, but ideas for future research on sequencing strategies are provided.
Exploring the practices of selecting and sequencing strategies for whole-class discussions
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Created on 8/1/2020
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Additional Information
- Publication
- Dissertation
- Language: English
- Date: 2020
- Keywords
- Elementary Mathematics, Selecting Strategies, Whole-Class Discussions
- Subjects
- Student-centered learning
- Active learning
- Mathematics $x Study and teaching (Elementary)