Dorothy Y. White

Promoting productive mathematical classroom discourse with diverse students

Abstract Productive mathematical classroom discourse allows students to concentrate on sense making and reasoning; it allows teachers to reflect on students’ understanding and to stimulate mathematical thinking. The focus of the paper is to describe, through classroom vignettes of two teachers, the importance of including all students in classroom discourse and its influence on students’ mathematical thinking. Each classroom vignette illustrates one of four themes that emerged from the classroom discourse: (a) valuing students’ ideas, (b) exploring students’ answers, (c) incorporating students’ background knowledge, and (d) encouraging student-to-student communication. Recommendations for further research on classroom discourse in diverse settings are offered.

Negotiating a River: Four Reflections on Collaboration.

Abstract This article reports the experiences of a team of teacher educators as they embarked on a collaboration effort during their methods courses for pre‐service teachers in an early childhood program. The collaboration experience was much like a first experience in white water rafting. The article begins with a description of how the collaboration was set up (plotting the course and packing the right gear). Next, the expectations and interpretations of the collaboration provide a meaningful learning experience across methods courses and field experiences as described by: the reading instructor, the early‐childhood instructor, the mathematics instructor, and a preservice teacher (maneuvering the rapids: reflections from the rafters). Finally, a summary of the experiences is presented (relaxing and enjoying the ride), along with some suggestions for others who may attempt such a venture (shooting the rapids).