Book Description
To address the limited mathematical preparation of many entry-level community college students, they are referred to developmental mathematics classes. However, documented student underachievement in these classes demonstrates that efforts to prepare students in mathematics have not been effective. In this research study, I sought to gain an insight into both the teaching methods and learning of developmental mathematics in community college. Using classroom observations, I documented the verbal exchanges between teacher and students in two classrooms during teacher-led lectures and supported my interpretations with data from interviews of teachers and focal students. I examined regularities in the classroom activity to define patterns of participation that framed the social and sociomathematical norms fostered in each classroom. Classroom norms deepened my understanding of how teachers invited students to participate in classroom discourse and the roles teachers and students played. This understanding, as well as a focus on the mathematical content of the discourse, allowed me to explicate how the forms of discourse operated in the construction of knowledge availed by classroom context. Supported by the teacher's known-answer questions, the monologic discourse in one of the classrooms was focused on rote memorization of mathematical procedures, whereas a less monologic discourse in the other focused on understanding these procedures. I conclude that classroom discourse and normative interaction patterns guide and influence student learning in ways that can improve mathematical achievement.
