Students' Possibilities to Learn From Group Discussions Integrated in Whole-class Teaching in Mathematics

• Published in: Scandinavian journal of educational research Vol. 65; no. 6; pp. 1020 - 1036
• Main Author: Wester, Jenny Svanteson
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Abingdon Routledge 19.09.2021; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Classroom discussion; Concept Formation; Discussion (Teaching Technique); Early Adolescents; Educational Sciences; Foreign Countries; Geometric Concepts; Grade 8; Group Discussion; Heterogeneous Grouping; Instructional Effectiveness; Learning; Mathematics; Mathematics Instruction; Secondary School Students; Small Group Instruction; Teaching; Utbildningsvetenskap; variation theory; whole-class discussion; Sweden
• ISSN: 0031-3831; 1470-1170
• DOI: 10.1080/00313831.2020.1788148

The aim of this paper is to investigate how small-group and whole-class discussions during whole-class teaching contribute to students' learning. The study includes 33 video-recorded small-group discussions in four mathematics lessons on enlarging and reducing two-dimensional geometric figures in Grade 8. The results show that different objects of learning were enacted in the different small-groups' discussions, and that in the majority of the small-group discussions the students did not have the possibility to learn what was intended, since critical aspects were not explored. The combination of group and whole-class discussions contributed to that critical aspects of the specific subject matter came to the fore and thereby were possible to discern. The results indicate that small-group discussions without subsequent whole-class discussions may have less effect on student learning.