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Proceedings of the 28th Conference of the International
Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education, 2004 Vol 2 pp 495–502
PROGRESSIVE DISCOURSE IN MATHEMATICS CLASSES –
THE TASK OF THE TEACHER
Susie Groves
& Brian Doig
Deakin University
This paper uses data from two mathematics lessons to explore the nature of
progressive discourse and examine critical features of teacher actions that
contribute to mathematics classrooms functioning as communities of inquiry.
Features found to promote progressive discourse include a focus on the
conceptual elements of the curriculum and the use of complex, challenging tasks
that problematised the curriculum; the orchestration of student reporting to
allow all students to contribute to progress towards the community’s solution to
the problem; and a focus on seeking, recognizing, and drawing attention to
mathematical reasoning and justification, and using this as a basis for learning.
INTRODUCTION
Classroom discourse can be progressive in the same sense as science as a whole is
progressive. Scientific progress is not one homogeneous flow; it contains innumerable
local discourses that are progressive by the standard of the people participating but
that, with respect to overall progress in science, may only be catching up or even may
be heading in the wrong direction. The important thing is that the local discourses be
progressive in the sense that understandings are being generated that are new to the
local participants and that the participants recognize as superior to their previous
understandings. (Bereiter, 1994, p. 9)
Our interest in classroom discourse arises, in part, from previous collaborative work
based on the notion of Communities of Inquiry, which underpins the Philosophy for
Children movement (see, for example, Splitter & Sharp, 1995). Key features of
classrooms functioning as communities of philosophical inquiry are the development
of skills and dispositions associated with good thinking, reasoning and dialogue; the
use of subject matter which is conceptually complex and intriguing, but accessible;
and a classroom environment characterized by a sense of common purpose, mutual
trust and risk-taking. Our concern has been how these features can be made a part of
everyday classroom practice in mathematics.
In earlier work, we have reported a high level of support among principals, teachers
and mathematics educators for mathematics classrooms functioning as communities
of inquiry, together with a realization that current Australian practice falls far short of
this goal, partly because the cognitive demands of typical lessons are low and do not
challenge children (Groves, Doig & Splitter, 2000; Doig, Groves & Splitter, 2001);
and the critical role of conceptually focused, robust tasks that can be used to support
the development of sophisticated mathematical thinking (Groves & Doig, 2002). In
this paper, we focus on aspects of classroom discourse associated with classrooms
functioning as communities of mathematical inquiry.
2–496 PME28 – 2004
According to Bereiter (1994), classroom discourse can be progressive in the same
sense as science, with the generation of new understandings requiring a commitment
from the participants to working towards a common understanding, based on a
growing collection of propositions that can or have been tested. In a similar vein,
Cobb, Wood and Yackel (1991) contrast discussion in traditional mathematics
classrooms, where the teacher decides what is sense and what is nonsense, with
genuine dialogue, where participants assume that what the other says makes sense,
but expect results to be supported by explanation and justification. Mercer (1995)
proposed three forms of talk that can be used to aid the analysis of classroom talk and
thinking: disputational talk, featuring disagreement and individualized decision
making, with few attempts at synthesis; cumulative talk, in which speakers build
positively, but uncritically, on previous speakers’ utterances; and exploratory talk,
where critical, but constructive, use is made of another’s ideas, challenges are
justified, and alternative explanations offered. It is this last category of exploratory
talk that resonates with good thinking, reasoning and dialogue in Communities of
Inquiry.
This paper uses data from two, apparently quite different, mathematics lessons to
explore the nature of progressive discourse and examine critical features of teacher
actions that contribute to mathematics classrooms functioning as communities of
inquiry.
A YEAR 1 LESSON ON ADDITION IN JAPAN
This lesson, observed by both authors late last year in Japan, was taught by an
“expert teacher”, Hiroshi Nakano, to a Year 1 class of 40 children. The lesson was
part of a sequence of lessons on addition.
The lesson commenced with children being presented with a series of flashcards with
shaded and unshaded dots arranged in two rows of five, and children being asked to
show how many more shaded dots were needed to “make 10”. This was followed by
a similar task where the flashcards showed single numerals instead of dots.
The children were then presented with the problem for the day — finding the answer
to 8 + 6 and explaining the reasons for their answers. Children worked individually
for 5 minutes, after which the teacher wrote 8 + 6 = 14 on the blackboard and invited
particular children to write their solutions on the board.
Figure 1: Girl 1’s solution for 8 + 6 = 14
Girl 1’s solution is shown in Figure 1. When asked, most children stated that they had
used the same method. The teacher then asked the children to guess why Girl 1 had
2 4
8 + 6 = 14
10
PME28 – 2004 2–497
divided the 6 into 2 and 4. Children responded that this was based on “Nishimoto-
san’s making 10 rule” — apparently formulated by one of the children, Nishimoto-
san, in the previous lesson where the problem was to find 9 + 6.
The teacher then asked for a different solution. Boy 1’s solution is shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2: Boy 1’s solution for 8 + 6 = 14
The teacher commented that this was again using “Nishimoto-san’s making 10 rule”,
and asked for another way. Girl 2’s solution, still described by the teacher as using
“Nishimoto-san’s making 10 rule”, is shown in Figure 3. A few children said they
had used this method.
Figure 3: Girl 2’s solution for 8 + 6 = 14
Boy 2 stated that he did not use the “making 10 rule”. Children tried to guess how he
found the answer — had he used a “making 5 rule”? Boy 2 said he had not and
explained his reasoning as shown in Figure 4.
8 + 6 = 14
because 9 + 6 = 15 “we did this before”
and 8 is one less than 9 . So, “if 9 becomes 8, the answer is one less”.
9 + 6 = 15
1 less 1 less
8 + 6 = 14
Figure 4: Boy 2’s solution for 8 + 6 = 14
Many children clapped in response to this solution and a girl commented that this
used their former knowledge of addition.
The teacher suggested that they move on to looking at 7 + 6 using the same method.
Surprisingly, rather than starting with 8 + 6 = 14, Boy 2 again started with 9 + 6 = 15
as shown in Figure 5.
4 4
10
8 + 6 = 14
8 + 6 = 14
3
5
5
1
10
4
2–498 PME28 – 2004
9 + 6 = 15
2 less 1 less 1 less 2 less
8 + 6 = 14
7 + 6 = 13
Figure 5: Boy 2’s solution for 8 + 6 = 14
The teacher asked everyone to “check the hypothesis” that the answer is 13. Several
children demonstrated their solutions using similar methods to those shown in
Figures 1 to 3 — i.e. using the “making 10 rule”.
Now that children had confirmed that 7 + 6 = 13. the teacher asked them to complete
Figure 6, using Boy 2’s method and confirming their answers as before.
9 + 6 = 15
8 + 6 = 14
3 less 7 + 6 = 13 3 less
6 + 6 =
5 + 6 =
Figure 6: Using Boy 2’s solution for 6 + 6 and 5 + 6
One boy continued the list to 0 + 6 and then even further to 10 + 6, 11 + 6, …, 16 + 6.
A YEAR 7 LESSON ON THE AREA OF A TRIANGLE IN AUSTRALIA
This double lesson, taught by Gaye Williams to a class of approximately 24 Year 7
girls in Australia, was videotaped as an “exemplary problem solving lesson” for
teaching purposes at Deakin University. The lesson was part of a sequence of lessons
on the topic of the area of a triangle. Video extracts will be shown in the presentation
to supplement this necessarily brief description of the lesson.
Girls worked in groups of four, trying to find a rule for determining the area of a
triangle. One group already knew the rule and was trying to find a rule for the area of
a trapezium. The teacher introduced the problem by saying:
You can draw as many triangles as you like …. What you want to do is to try and find
the amount of space inside them; see if you can find any patterns; think about whether
those patterns always happen; and try some more if you think you need to try more,
until you think you know how to tell someone how to find the amount of space inside
a triangle. I mean there might not even be a rule — except these people [the group
working on the area of a trapezium] think there is.
The girls were given 10 minutes to make as much progress as they could, before one
person from each group was asked to report on what their group was thinking about.
Initially, some groups struggled with the difference between area and perimeter and
tried to use irrelevant information such as the angle sum of a triangle.
PME28 – 2004 2–499
As the groups worked, the teacher moved around the room, asking questions and
observing students working, very much in the manner of the Japanese kikan-shido
“between desk walking” or “purposeful scanning” (see, for example, Kepner, p. 7).
As well as using this as an opportunity for selecting the order of reporting, the teacher
also sometimes suggested specific aspects she wanted the group to report. While each
group could choose who would report, there was an understanding that each member
would report at some stage during the investigation.
During the initial reporting, the teacher reminded the girls that they were not allowed
to contradict but only to ask for further explanations.
After some considerable time, at least one group came up with the standard rule for
the area of a triangle of “base times height divided by two”. Commenting on this
group’s report, the teacher said:
We have a couple of interesting things here. I had a question to ask, but I didn’t need
to ask it. I was going to ask “Can they really say they have a pattern when they have
only worked with one triangle?” And then Kathryn went on and said they’d worked
with heaps of triangles! That’s OK. It looks like they really have a pattern. But I hope
they looked at some really unusual triangles to make sure it seemed to be happening
all the time. But then I loved Sarah’s question because when you have found a pattern
that’s the beginning not the end — that’s when you have to think “well if it really is
so, why is it so?”
Before discussing these lessons further, it should be made clear that neither of these
teachers is “typical”. Nevertheless, the Year 1 lesson shares many features with
almost every Japanese lesson observed by us, although the same could certainly not
be said about the Australian lesson. Nakano is a well-known teacher whose lessons
have been the basis for many Lesson Studies, including one of the video exemplars
used in a US-Japan Workshop (see Kepner, 2002; Nakano, 2002), while Williams is
the author of a book containing a detailed theoretical and practical approach to
learning through investigations (Williams, 1996).
THE TASK OF THE TEACHER
A good discussion occurs … when the net result … is discerned as marking a definite
progress as contrasted with the conditions that existed when the episode began.
Perhaps it is a progress in understanding; perhaps it is progress in arriving at some
kind of consensus; perhaps it is progress only in the sense of formulating the problem
— but in any case, there is a sense of forward movement having taken place.
Something has been accomplished; a group product has been achieved.
(Lipman, Sharp & Oscanyan, 1980, p. 111)
We would argue that in both of these lessons there is progressive classroom discourse
in the sense of Bereiter (1994). Moreover, the three key aspects of classrooms
functioning as Communities of Inquiry could also be observed. We will now discuss
what we believe are some critical features common to the two teachers’ actions.
2–500 PME28 – 2004
Problematising the curriculum
[Students’] understanding increases significantly with their discovery of concepts they
have built out of their own prior mathematical knowledge. (Williams, 1996, p. 2)
In both lessons, the teachers took what is usually regarded, at least in Australia, as a
standard piece of mathematics, to be taught by either exposition or what Simon
(2003) refers to as empirical activity, and transformed it into challenging and
problematic, yet accessible content. As stated earlier, the importance of the
development of conceptually focused, robust tasks to support the development of
sophisticated mathematical thinking should not be underestimated.
In Japan, this is supported through the use of Lesson Study, which aims to research
the feasibility or effectiveness of a lesson (see, for example, Kepner, 2002; Nakano,
2002). Moreover, a common framework for lesson planning in Japan uses a four
column grid with the first showing the following steps: Posing a problem, Students’
problem solving, individually or, less frequently, in small groups; Whole class
discussion; and Summing up; possibly followed by Exercise/extension. Each of these
is accompanied by entries under the column headings of Main learning activities;
Anticipated student responses; and Remarks on teaching (Shimizu, 2002). This
common lesson pattern, based on students’ actual and anticipated solutions of a
single problem, together with an in-depth analysis of these solutions, promotes the
problematising of the mathematics curriculum.
As well as kikan-shido, referred to earlier, key pedagogical ideas shared by teachers
and forming observational criteria include: hatsumon — thought-provoking questions
important to mathematical development and connections; neriage — raising the level
of whole class discussion through orchestration and probing of student solutions
(Kepner, 2002); and yamaba — regarding a lesson as a drama structured around a
climax or “yamaba” (Shimizu, 2002).
Establishing an appropriate classroom environment
Where elegance and originality are valued; the search for the most elegant solution
becomes the intrinsic motivation of the group. (Williams, 1996, p. 2)
The classroom environment in both lessons was clearly characterized by a sense of
common purpose, mutual trust and risk-taking in the sense of Communities of
Inquiry. The common purpose was achieved through both the use of a task that was
genuinely problematic, yet accessible, for students, and through the establishment of
social norms that valued individual (and group) contributions to the solution process.
In the case of the Australian lesson, it was evident that a great deal of effort had been
made by the teacher to establish an environment where risk-taking was both
supported and simultaneously minimized — for example, as stated earlier, the teacher
reminded the girls during a report they were not allowed to contradict but only to ask
for further explanations. This was one of many “rules” that formed part of explicit
social norms operating in her classroom (see Williams, 1996, for further details). In
Japan, while such social norms still need to be established, the fact that there is a
PME28 – 2004 2–501
common pattern of lessons and a shared understanding among teachers of key
pedagogical ideas, means that students anticipate how a mathematics lesson will
operate and do not need explicit instruction on the social norms. Moreover, Japanese
teachers frequently make a point of using students’ incorrect solutions as a stepping
stone to the class developing their understanding. In Australia, a great deal of
successful effort has gone into establishing safe classroom environments, although
there is very little emphasis on establishing a common (intellectual) purpose,
especially when, in many primary schools particularly, groups of students are often
working on different tasks — a practice that clearly mitigates against progressive
dialogue, at least in the whole-class setting.
Focusing on good thinking and dialogue
I would like to make my class enjoyable for children’s thinking. I want the class to
operate so that the children’s thinking can be recognized by others and also by
teachers. I also like to make the class feel that they can find out about the similarities
and differences of their ideas in relation to others. (Nakano, 2002, p. 65)
In both lessons, not only were there well-established social norms relating to
discussion, but also, in Yackel and Cobb’s (1996) sense, well-established socio-
mathematical norms for what counts as acceptable explanations and justifications.
Simon (2003) describes a Year 6 lesson also on the topic of the area of triangles as
constituting empirical activity as opposed to logico-mathematical activity and defines
mathematical understanding as requiring a “learned anticipation of the logical
necessity of a particular pattern or relationship” (p. 185). In contrast to Simon’s
lesson, the Australian lesson explicitly emphasized the need for this logical necessity
when the teacher stated that “when you have found a pattern that’s the beginning not
the end — that’s when you have to think well if it really is so, why is it so?”
CONCLUSION
While the two lessons discussed here clearly differ in many respects, there are also
many similarities, with the different contexts highlighting the ways in which the
teachers promoted progressive discourse. Firstly, both teachers had a clear focus on
the conceptual elements of the curriculum and were able to devise and sustain the use
of complex, challenging tasks, that problematised the curriculum. Secondly,
progressive discourse was promoted through the orchestration of the reporting of
student solutions, starting with the least mathematically sophisticated in order to
allow all students reporting to progress the community’s solution to the problem.
This aspect requires the teacher to not only interact with students as they work on the
problem, but also to anticipate potential solution strategies and select an order for
student reporting. Most of all, progressive discourse was promoted through the
teachers’ focus on seeking, recognizing, and drawing attention to mathematical
reasoning and justification, and using it as a basis for learning. Factors that appeared
not to affect progressive discourse in these cases included the age of the students, the
mathematical topic, nor the use of co-operative group work.
2–502 PME28 – 2004
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