Jonas Emanuelsson

The Price of Participation: Teacher control versus student participation in classroom interaction

The aim of this article is to further the understanding of how content is learned in classrooms, using conversation analysis (CA) and variation theory for the analysis. Classroom video materials from two mathematics classrooms in Sweden and the USA are analysed. A result of the study is the empirical explication of the tension between the need for teacher content control and the simultaneous contradictory need for student participation in educational interaction. The article also develops variation theory toward a more sensitive understanding of the sequential implications of interaction and suggests CA can benefit from more systematic understandings of content orientation in interaction. In doing so, the presumed gulf between acquisitionist and participation understandings of learning is challenged.

Building knowledge about the interface

Abstract In order to explore the current views of the interface community and to develop an understanding of the present state of play, research specialisation (from education research) which studies knowledge development, has been applied to research variation in the communitys ways of experiencing the ‘interface’ as a phenomenon in composite materials. Ten leaders of the field were interviewed and the transcripts of those interviews collated and analysed. Four dimensions of variation in the ways researchers view the interface were uncovered. It is found that there is not even general agreement as to whether the interface is an object, which can be measured, or an illusive concept. The resulting ‘outcome space’ or ‘collective consciousness’ may lead to a broader understanding of the issues involved.

Fingu—A Game to Support Children’s Development of Arithmetic Competence: Theory, Design and Empirical Research

This chapter aims at describing research on Fingu, a virtual manipulative housed in a game environment, which is designed to support young children’s learning and development of number concepts and flexible arithmetic competence. More specifically Fingu targets the understanding and mastering of the basic numbers 1–10 as part-whole relations, which according to the literature on early mathematics learning is critical for this development. In the chapter, we provide an overview of the theoretical grounding of the design, development and research of Fingu as well as the theoretical and practical design rationale and principles. We point out the potential of Fingu as a research platform and present examples of some of the empirical research conducted to demonstrate the learning potential of Fingu. Methodologically, the research adopts a design-based research approach. This approach combines theory-driven design of learning environments with empirical research in educational settings, in a series of iterations. In a first series of iterations, a computer game—the Number Practice Game—was designed and researched, based on phenomenographic theory and empirical studies. In a second series of iterations, Fingu was designed and researched, based on ecological psychology in a socio-cultural framing. The design trajectory of NPG/Fingu thus involves both theoretical development and (re)design and development of specific educational technologies.

What Do Students Attend to? Students’ Task-Related Attention in Swedish Settings

What aspects of tasks on mathematical relationships do Swedish students attend to when interacting with the teacher? In this chapter three types of mathematics taskrelated issues that students focus their attention on in Swedish classrooms are analysed. Previously attention and motivational factors such as interest and student engagement have been objects of both theoretical and empirical research.

Methods for Studying Mathematics Teaching and Learning Internationally

The focus of this chapter is issues related to methods for studying mathematics teaching and learning internationally. The chapter identifies three sorts of overarching purposes and goals of international studies, namely to uncover and analyze, across a group of countries: differences in students’ learning outcomes, achievements and attitudes; differences in curricula, teaching approaches, resources and the environments of mathematics education; and possible links between the latter and the former. The chapter provides detailed accounts of the designs, methods, methodologies, and instruments that have been used in two kinds of studies—large-scale international comparative studies, such as TIMSS and PISA, and so-called focal studies concentrating on more specific problematiques or themes. The last part of the chapter offers reflections on the nature of international comparative studies with an emphasis on their strengths and potentials as well as on their challenges and limitations. One fundamental question in this context is the extent to which the results of such studies can be meaningfully interpreted, especially in view of the massive interest amongst politicians, administrators, media, and the general public, who often do not pay sufficient attention to the characteristics and conditions of the studies.

Building knowledge about the interface in composite materials

Abstract In order to explore the current views of the interface community and to develop an understanding of the present state of play, research specialisation which studies knowledge development, has been applied to research variation in the community’s ways of experiencing the ’interface’ as a phenomenon in composite materials. Ten leaders of the field were interviewed and the transcripts of those interviews collated and analysed. Four dimensions of variation in the ways researchers view the interface were uncovered. It is found that there is not even general agreement as to whether the interface is an object which can be measured, or an illusive concept. The resulting ’outcome space’ or ’collective consciousness’ may lead to a broader understanding of the issues involved.

Martina’s Voice

In Swedish classrooms, the use of the instructional mode called student independent work has been encouraged since the 1990s. In this mode, students are expected to plan and work on their own on different tasks independent of other students and to a large extent independent of the teacher. The research team of the Learner’s Perspective Study (LPS) (Clarke, 2006) has documented this form of instruction in Swedish classrooms.