Jenni Ingram

A critical analysis of the role of wait time in classroom interactions and the effects on student and teacher interactional behaviours

Extending the pauses between teachers’ and students’ turns (wait time) has been recommended as a way of improving classroom learning. Drawing on the Conversation Analysis literature on classroom interactions alongside extracts of classroom interactions, the relationship between these pauses and the interactional behaviour of teachers and students is examined. Extended wait time is built in to classroom interactions because of the IRF (Initiation–Response–Feedback/Follow-up) framework that dominates these interactions. Extending wait time can lead to a variety of changes in the norms of classroom interaction. The structures of interactions in formal classrooms are used to explain the previous findings relating to the extension of wait time. It is also shown that different uses of extended wait time lead to different interactional norms and maintaining extended wait times may not be desirable. Consequently, the article argues for a more nuanced understanding of wait time, desired student behaviours and the interaction of the two.

The impact of adopting a research orientation towards use of the Pupil Premium Grant in preparing beginning teachers in England to understand and work effectively with young people living in poverty

Abstract The introduction in England of the Pupil Premium Grant (PPG) provided a stimulus to ensure that beginning teachers understand the nature of poverty and critically examine strategies used by schools seeking to overcome the barriers to academic achievement that it presents. This article explores the effects of asking student-teachers within a well-established initial teacher education partnership to adopt a research orientation towards the use of PPG funding. It focuses on the student-teachers’ experiences and developing thinking as they engaged in small-scale investigative projects and on the perspectives of their school-based teacher educators (professional tutors). Whole-course evaluation data suggest that most projects operated successfully, with the student-teachers encouraged to ask critical questions about current practices, drawing on different kinds of evidence. Three case studies illustrate the diversity of approaches adopted towards the project, reflecting the views of individual professional tutors and the complex interplay between the competing object motives of different participants.

Handling errors as they arise in whole-class interactions

There has been a long history of research into errors and their role in the teaching and learning of mathematics. This research has led to a change to pedagogical recommendations from avoiding errors to explicitly using them in lessons. In this study, 22 mathematics lessons were video-recorded and transcribed. A conversation analytic (CA) approach was then taken to examine how mathematical errors are treated by teachers and students when they arise in interaction. Despite pedagogical recommendations, in these interactions, errors continue to be predominantly treated as something to avoid. There is a tension between the affective aspects of managing errors in interactions and the cognitive aspects. Close examination of classroom interactions enable us to see how these tensions are managed both by teachers and students.

Making Student Explanations Relevant in Whole Class Discussion

Students explaining their mathematics is vital to the teaching and learning of mathematics, yet we know little about how to enable and support students to explain in whole class discussions beyond teachers asking particular questions. In this chapter we use a conversation analytic approach to explore the interactional structures that make student explanations relevant. Through a detailed examination of interactions where a student explanation occurs, three distinct structures are identified where a student explanation is perceived to be relevant. Our focus in the analysis is the social actions students themselves do in their explanations to display their interpretation of the interaction as requiring an explanation and constraining the type of explanation. However, these structures also offer ways that teachers can use the structure of interaction to encourage students to offer explanations in their responses.

Playing the system: incentives to ‘game’ and educational ethics in school examination entry policies in England

ABSTRACT There has been a period of intense policy change involving GCSE examinations in England, proposed partly in response to schools using tactics to maximise performance against accountability measures. The reforms included a change to linear rather than modular entry, removing partial re-sits, and limiting early and multiple entry to examinations by changing school accountability measures. We present new empirical data from interviews conducted with senior teachers at 15 schools. The focus of these interviews has been in the English and mathematics departments; the first subjects to be examined in the new specifications. The data suggest that teachers acknowledge this practice of ‘gaming’ but only as something ‘other’ schools did. Whilst the reforms have now allowed for the system to be viewed as a more level playing field, teachers still describe a constant tension in the decisions surrounding examination entry. They describe the desire for a balance that is not just between school and student outcomes, but also between different outcomes such as motivation, performance, and engagement. Tensions arise between these outcomes when entry choices are being made.

Day conference abstracts

It is recognised that an increasing number of students (in the USA) who are qualified intellectually are deciding not to study mathematics beyond minimum secondary school requirements and that many more girls than boys make this decision. A set of variables explaining individual differences in the learning of mathematics not only affects the amount of effort one is willing to employ to learn mathematics, but also influences the election of additional mathematics courses beyond the basic requirements in secondary schools. This paper reports on pilot study data gained from a Bangla translated version of the Fennema-Sherman Mathematics Attitude Scales (FSMAS). The main purpose of the survey was to check the reliability of using the Bangla translated version of FSMAS in the rural Bangladeshi context and to observe any patterns of differences in attitudes to mathematics among different groups.