Mathematical tasks in classrooms around the world / / edited by Yoshinori Shimizu [and three others].

• Superior document: The Learner’s Perspective Study ; 3
• TeilnehmendeR: Shimizu, Yoshinori, 1961-
• Place / Publishing House: Rotterdam ;, Boston ;, Taipei : : Sense Publishers,, [2010]; ©2010
• Year of Publication: 2010
• Language: English
• Series: The Learner’s Perspective Study ; 3.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource

Mathematical tasks have long been recognized as crucial mediators ?between mathematical content and the mathematics learner. For many people, the mathematics classroom is defined by the type of tasks one finds there - and this is appropriate. Mathematical tasks are the embodiment of the curricular pretext that brings each particular set of individuals together in every mathematics classroom. In other contexts, individuals come together to engage in musical performances or dramatic performances. The performances of the mathematics classroom are largely the performance of mathematical tasks and if we are to understand and facilitate the learning that is the purpose of such settings then we must understand the nature of the performances that we find there. The classroom performance of a task is ultimately a unique synthesis of task, teacher, students and situation. Of particular interest are differences in the function of mathematically similar tasks when employed by different teachers, in different classrooms, for different instructional purposes, with different students. By making comparison possible between the classroom use of mathematical tasks in different classrooms around the world, the analyses reported in this book reveal the profound differences in how each teacher utilises mathematical tasks, in partnership with their students, to create a distinctive form of mathematical activity. The Learner’s Perspective Study aims to juxtapose the observable practices of the classroom and the meanings attributed to those practices by classroom participants. The LPS research design documents sequences of at least ten lessons, using three video cameras, supplemented by the reconstructive accounts of classroom participants obtained in post-lesson video-stimulated interviews, and by test and questionnaire data, and copies of student written material. In each participating country, data generation focuses on the classrooms of three teachers, identified by the local mathematics education community as competent, and situated in demographically different school communities within the one major city. The large body of complex data supports both the characterisation of practice in the classrooms of competent teachers and the development of theory.

Table of Contents

Preliminary Material / Yoshinori Shimizu , Berinderjeet Kaur , Rongjin Huang and David Clarke -- The Role of Mathematical Tasks in Different Cultures / Yoshinori Shimizu , Berinderjeet Kaur , Rongjin Huang and David Clarke -- A Study of Mathematical Tasks from Three Classrooms in Singapore / Berinderjeet Kaur -- Mathematical Tasks as Catalysts for Student Talk: Analysing Discourse in a Norwegian Mathematics Classroom / Ole Kristian Bergem and Kirsti Klette -- Engaging Students with Mathematical Tasks in a Large Class / Florenda Gallos Cronberg -- A Task-Specific Analysis of Explicit Linking in the Lesson Sequences in Three Japanese Mathematics Classrooms / Yoshinori Shimizu -- Linking in Teaching Linear Equations – Forms and Purposes: The Case of the Czech Republic / Jarmila Novotná and Alena Hošpesová -- Comparison of Learning Task Lesson Events between Australian and Shanghai Lessons / Ida Ah Chee Mok -- Implementing Mathematical Tasks in US and Chinese Classrooms / Rongjin Huang and Jinfa Cai -- Student-Created Tasks Inform Conceptual Task Design / Gaye Williams -- A Functional Analysis of Mathematical Tasks in China, Japan, Sweden, Australia and the USA: Voice and Agency / Carmel Mesiti and David Clarke -- The LPS Research Design / David Clarke -- Author Index / Yoshinori Shimizu , Berinderjeet Kaur , Rongjin Huang and David Clarke -- Subject Index / Yoshinori Shimizu , Berinderjeet Kaur , Rongjin Huang and David Clarke.