Abstract
In recent years educational researchers' interest in human communication has been
steadily growing, and today, discourse is the main focus of many, if not most, of
educational studies. The discursive turnaround has been spurred, on the one hand, by
the replacement of the “monological” vision of human knowledge with the
“dialogical” (Bakhtin, 1986) one, which implies, among others, that school learning
can be thought of as the activity of introducing students to historically established
forms of communication; and, on the other hand, by technological advances that, by
enabling permanent records of classroom interactions, support refined, high-resolution
analyses of learning-teaching processes.
With discourse and its development being a unifying theme, there is still much
diversity in the epistemological and ontological underpinnings of
communication-oriented studies. Some researchers see communication as but a
window to thinking processes, whereas others refer to it as tantamount to thinking.
This latter position will be called here the strong (or radically) discursive. Although
most of the contributors to this forum share the strong discursive approach, the
participants will be invited to consider the full spectrum of perspectives.
The contributors will address conceptual and methodological issues, as delineated by
the following key questions:
1. What does research tell us, so far, about how mathematical discourses
(numerical, algebraic, geometric, of function, etc.) develop? (This is tantamount
to asking about the unique contribution of discursive research to our
understanding of teaching and learning mathematics.)
2. How to investigate the development of mathematical discourses?
steadily growing, and today, discourse is the main focus of many, if not most, of
educational studies. The discursive turnaround has been spurred, on the one hand, by
the replacement of the “monological” vision of human knowledge with the
“dialogical” (Bakhtin, 1986) one, which implies, among others, that school learning
can be thought of as the activity of introducing students to historically established
forms of communication; and, on the other hand, by technological advances that, by
enabling permanent records of classroom interactions, support refined, high-resolution
analyses of learning-teaching processes.
With discourse and its development being a unifying theme, there is still much
diversity in the epistemological and ontological underpinnings of
communication-oriented studies. Some researchers see communication as but a
window to thinking processes, whereas others refer to it as tantamount to thinking.
This latter position will be called here the strong (or radically) discursive. Although
most of the contributors to this forum share the strong discursive approach, the
participants will be invited to consider the full spectrum of perspectives.
The contributors will address conceptual and methodological issues, as delineated by
the following key questions:
1. What does research tell us, so far, about how mathematical discourses
(numerical, algebraic, geometric, of function, etc.) develop? (This is tantamount
to asking about the unique contribution of discursive research to our
understanding of teaching and learning mathematics.)
2. How to investigate the development of mathematical discourses?
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Proceedings of the 37th Conference of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education |
| Subtitle of host publication | Mathematics learning across the life span |
| Editors | Anke M. Lindmeier, Aiso Heinze |
| Place of Publication | Kiel, Germany |
| Pages | 155-180 |
| Number of pages | 26 |
| Volume | 1 |
| State | Published - 2013 |
| Event | 37th Conference of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education - Kiel, Germany Duration: 28 Jul 2013 → 2 Aug 2013 |
Publication series
| Name | PME Conference. Proceedings |
|---|
Conference
| Conference | 37th Conference of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education |
|---|---|
| Country/Territory | Germany |
| City | Kiel |
| Period | 28/07/13 → 2/08/13 |