Unifying dialogic learning and mathematics learning: A discursive lens for the study of dialogic mathematics peer learning

Background: Although it has been suggested that peer interactions that are meaningful both mathematically and dialogically are rare, not much is known about them. We draw on commognition to suggest a unified definition of dialogic mathematics peer learning as a peer interaction including two features: (a) a shift from familiar ways and rules of doing mathematics to newer, more developed ones; (b) openness to and critical engagement with each other’s suggestions that involves reliance on the more developed rules. Method: We empirically demonstrate the affordances of the suggested lens by micro-analyzing five dyadic interactions of middle-school students working on a geometric task designed to encourage a shift from familiar visual/configural ways of doing geometry to more developed deductive ones. Findings: Only one out of the five interactions included both features of dialogic mathematics peer learning; three interactions lacked both features; and one interaction included the openness and critical engagement feature but still not the mathematical shift feature. Contribution: The paper provides discursive conceptual and methodological tools for examining the intersection between two important strands of the learning sciences—mathematics learning and dialogic learning—as well as empirical and practical conclusions that foreground the complexity and fragility of this intersection.