Classrooms are complex social settings, and research that seeks to understand the learning that o... more Classrooms are complex social settings, and research that seeks to understand the learning that occurs in such settings must reflect and accommodate that complexity. (Clarke, 1997, p. 98
A significant distinguishing characteristic of the International Classroom Lexicon Project was th... more A significant distinguishing characteristic of the International Classroom Lexicon Project was the documentation of classroom pedagogical practices of mathematics teachers in the original languages of ten communities. These lexicons provide us with an opportunity to compare identified teacher practices within these communities. In this paper, we explore the challenges of conducting a cross-lexicon comparison to explore the possibility of moving towards an international lexicon by focusing on the Australian, Chilean, Czech and French lexicons. We focus on two clusters of terms, namely, those related to assessment and those related to mathematics. Inspired by theories and studies related to networking and boundary crossing, strategies were conceived and tested in order to accomplish the following objectives: to support a meticulous and comprehensive comparison of the lexical items; to classify the complexity of similarity of lexical items; and to reveal connections amongst the four le...
This paper reports a multi-stage analysis of 55 lessons taught as five ten-lesson sequences and o... more This paper reports a multi-stage analysis of 55 lessons taught as five ten-lesson sequences and one five-lesson sequence by three Australian and three American teachers. Despite the assumption of cultural similarity, there were significant structural differences between the Australian lessons analysed and the U.S. lessons. It is our contention that the comparison of lesson components (‘lesson events’) is more helpful than a (national) lesson pattern or script as a guide to the differences between the practices of teachers or nations. Focusing on Classroom Practice It seems reasonable to focus attention on the practices of classrooms as the most evident institutionalised means by which the policies of a nation’s educational system are put into effect. Specifically, the classroom seems a sensible place to look for explanations and consequences of the differences and similarities identified in international comparative studies of curriculum, teaching practice, and student achievement. ...
This Research Forum addresses theoretical, methodological and practical issues associated with la... more This Research Forum addresses theoretical, methodological and practical issues associated with language use and the mathematics classroom. All forum components have the function of language as their central and cohering theme, but address different forms of language use within that overarching theme. Language as communicative exchange provides the vehicle for the social construction of knowledge in mathematics classrooms. Language as discourse prescribes the limits of acceptable speech (Butler, 1997), both within the mathematics classroom and among the community of mathematics teachers when discussing the mathematics classroom. Within classroom discourse, different types of talk can be identified, characterised and their function in the learning process investigated. Language also functions as the medium by which the academic community analyse and theorise the phenomena for which the mathematics classroom is the setting. While these functions of language may appear quite distinct, it is our suggestion that they are profoundly intertwined: the language by which teachers shape the practices they orchestrate reflects cultural- historical origins that also sets bounds on researchers’ capacity to articulate theory concerning those practices. The Research Forum purposefully combines a variety of cultural and theoretical perspectives in order to interrogate the role of language.
Use of English as the international language of educational research can mask the nuanced meaning... more Use of English as the international language of educational research can mask the nuanced meanings of constructs that researchers working in languages other than English originally employed in framing their practice and their theories. Cross-cultural comparisons are framed in terms of constructs expressed in the language of publication, usually English. Attention has been drawn to the significance of the resulting validity-comparability compromise (Clarke, 2013). The Lexicon Project investigates the pedagogical naming systems used by educators in nine countries (eight languages). Drawing on examples from the Australian, Chinese and Czech lexicons, this paper outlines the project's research design and addresses the implications of distinctive lexical features for comparative classroom research between communities employing different lexicons to describe the phenomena of middle school mathematics classrooms.
Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia, 2017
Members of the Australian mathematics education research community and experienced teachers of ma... more Members of the Australian mathematics education research community and experienced teachers of mathematics participated in the process of documenting the professional vocabulary of middle school mathematics teachers. This vocabulary, the Australian Lexicon, captures the language in use by Australian mathematics teachers when describing the phenomena of the middle school mathematics classroom. In this paper, we examine the structure of the Australian Lexicon with particular attention given to content, connection, and characteristics of the professional vocabulary available to middle school mathematics teachers in Australia.
Learning can be conceptualised in terms of progressively enhanced participation in forms of insti... more Learning can be conceptualised in terms of progressively enhanced participation in forms of institutionalised social practice, where discourses form key components of that practice. Students are initiated into the discourse of the mathematics classroom: a discourse with its own technical vocabulary and discursive and social conventions. Mathematics teachers similarly participate in a discourse community in which the mathematics classroom and its objects, agents and events provide the subjects of professional discourse and for which language mediates the experience of the classroom and the professional learning that experience engenders. This workshop addresses theoretical, methodological and practical issues associated with language use and the mathematics classroom. It draws on the video-based research program led by the International Centre for Classroom Research (ICCR) at the University of Melbourne, Australia.
Classrooms are complex social settings, and research that seeks to understand the learning that o... more Classrooms are complex social settings, and research that seeks to understand the learning that occurs in such settings must reflect and accommodate that complexity. (Clarke, 1997, p. 98
A significant distinguishing characteristic of the International Classroom Lexicon Project was th... more A significant distinguishing characteristic of the International Classroom Lexicon Project was the documentation of classroom pedagogical practices of mathematics teachers in the original languages of ten communities. These lexicons provide us with an opportunity to compare identified teacher practices within these communities. In this paper, we explore the challenges of conducting a cross-lexicon comparison to explore the possibility of moving towards an international lexicon by focusing on the Australian, Chilean, Czech and French lexicons. We focus on two clusters of terms, namely, those related to assessment and those related to mathematics. Inspired by theories and studies related to networking and boundary crossing, strategies were conceived and tested in order to accomplish the following objectives: to support a meticulous and comprehensive comparison of the lexical items; to classify the complexity of similarity of lexical items; and to reveal connections amongst the four le...
This paper reports a multi-stage analysis of 55 lessons taught as five ten-lesson sequences and o... more This paper reports a multi-stage analysis of 55 lessons taught as five ten-lesson sequences and one five-lesson sequence by three Australian and three American teachers. Despite the assumption of cultural similarity, there were significant structural differences between the Australian lessons analysed and the U.S. lessons. It is our contention that the comparison of lesson components (‘lesson events’) is more helpful than a (national) lesson pattern or script as a guide to the differences between the practices of teachers or nations. Focusing on Classroom Practice It seems reasonable to focus attention on the practices of classrooms as the most evident institutionalised means by which the policies of a nation’s educational system are put into effect. Specifically, the classroom seems a sensible place to look for explanations and consequences of the differences and similarities identified in international comparative studies of curriculum, teaching practice, and student achievement. ...
This Research Forum addresses theoretical, methodological and practical issues associated with la... more This Research Forum addresses theoretical, methodological and practical issues associated with language use and the mathematics classroom. All forum components have the function of language as their central and cohering theme, but address different forms of language use within that overarching theme. Language as communicative exchange provides the vehicle for the social construction of knowledge in mathematics classrooms. Language as discourse prescribes the limits of acceptable speech (Butler, 1997), both within the mathematics classroom and among the community of mathematics teachers when discussing the mathematics classroom. Within classroom discourse, different types of talk can be identified, characterised and their function in the learning process investigated. Language also functions as the medium by which the academic community analyse and theorise the phenomena for which the mathematics classroom is the setting. While these functions of language may appear quite distinct, it is our suggestion that they are profoundly intertwined: the language by which teachers shape the practices they orchestrate reflects cultural- historical origins that also sets bounds on researchers’ capacity to articulate theory concerning those practices. The Research Forum purposefully combines a variety of cultural and theoretical perspectives in order to interrogate the role of language.
Use of English as the international language of educational research can mask the nuanced meaning... more Use of English as the international language of educational research can mask the nuanced meanings of constructs that researchers working in languages other than English originally employed in framing their practice and their theories. Cross-cultural comparisons are framed in terms of constructs expressed in the language of publication, usually English. Attention has been drawn to the significance of the resulting validity-comparability compromise (Clarke, 2013). The Lexicon Project investigates the pedagogical naming systems used by educators in nine countries (eight languages). Drawing on examples from the Australian, Chinese and Czech lexicons, this paper outlines the project's research design and addresses the implications of distinctive lexical features for comparative classroom research between communities employing different lexicons to describe the phenomena of middle school mathematics classrooms.
Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia, 2017
Members of the Australian mathematics education research community and experienced teachers of ma... more Members of the Australian mathematics education research community and experienced teachers of mathematics participated in the process of documenting the professional vocabulary of middle school mathematics teachers. This vocabulary, the Australian Lexicon, captures the language in use by Australian mathematics teachers when describing the phenomena of the middle school mathematics classroom. In this paper, we examine the structure of the Australian Lexicon with particular attention given to content, connection, and characteristics of the professional vocabulary available to middle school mathematics teachers in Australia.
Learning can be conceptualised in terms of progressively enhanced participation in forms of insti... more Learning can be conceptualised in terms of progressively enhanced participation in forms of institutionalised social practice, where discourses form key components of that practice. Students are initiated into the discourse of the mathematics classroom: a discourse with its own technical vocabulary and discursive and social conventions. Mathematics teachers similarly participate in a discourse community in which the mathematics classroom and its objects, agents and events provide the subjects of professional discourse and for which language mediates the experience of the classroom and the professional learning that experience engenders. This workshop addresses theoretical, methodological and practical issues associated with language use and the mathematics classroom. It draws on the video-based research program led by the International Centre for Classroom Research (ICCR) at the University of Melbourne, Australia.
Uploads
Papers by Carmel Mesiti