Jackson, Garrison, Wilson, Gibbons, & Shahan (2013)

Exploring Relationships Between Setting Up Complex Tasks and Opportunities to Learn in Concluding Whole-Class Discussions in Middle-Grades Mathematics Instruction

The article Exploring Relationships Between Setting Up Complex Tasks and Opportunities to Learn in Concluding Whole-Class Discussions in Middle-Grades Mathematics Instruction was written by Kara Jackson, Anne Garrison, Jonee Wilson, Lynsey Gibbons, and Emily Shahan and was published in the Journal for Research in Mathematics Education in 2013. The article is available from NCTM at http://www.nctm.org/publications/article.aspx?id=37550.

Abstract

This article specifies how the setup, or introduction, of cognitively demanding tasks is a crucial phase of middle-grades mathematics instruction. We report on an empirical study of 165 middle-grades mathematics teachers' instruction that focused on how they introduced tasks and the relationship between how they introduced tasks and the nature of students' opportunities to learn mathematics in the concluding whole-class discussion. Findings suggest that in lessons in which (a) the setup supported students to develop common language to describe contextual features and mathematical relationships specific to the task and (b) the cognitive demand of the task was maintained in the setup, concluding whole-class discussions were characterized by higher quality opportunities to learn.

Outline of Headings

• Motivation for the Study
• Conceptual Framework
  • Mathematical Tasks Framework
  • Key Aspects of High-Quality Setups
    • Key contextual features
    • Key mathematical ideas and relationships
    • Development of common language
    • Maintenance of the cognitive demand
    • Summary
• Methods
  • Research Context
    • Participating districts
    • Participating teachers
  • Data Source: Video Recordings of Classroom Instruction
  • Measuring Students' Opportunities to Learn Mathematics
    • Standard IQA measures
    • Task-as-set-up measures
  • Coding of Video Recordings
  • Methods of Analysis
    • Nature of the setup phase of instruction
    • Relationships between the setup and concluding whole-class discussion
• Results
  • Descriptive Statistics of the Observed Lessons
  • The Nature of the Setup Phase of Instruction
  • Relationships Between the Setup and Students' Opportunities to Learn in the Concluding Whole-Class Discussion
    • Relationships between the setup and Academic Rigor of the Discussion
    • Relationships between the setup and Student Linking
    • Relationships between the setup and Student Providing
  • Limitations of the Study
• Discussion and Conclusion

Also

APA

Jackson, K., Garrison, A., Wilson, J., Gibbons, L., & Shahan, E. (2013). Exploring relationships between setting up complex tasks and opportunities to learn in concluding whole-class discussions in middle-grades mathematics instruction. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 44(4), 646–682.

BibTeX

@article{Jackson2013,
author = {Jackson, Kara and Garrison, Anne and Wilson, Jonee and Gibbons, Lynsey and Shahan, Emily},
journal = {Journal for Research in Mathematics Education},
keywords = {Cognitive demand,Instruction,Opportunity to learn,Tasks},
number = {4},
pages = {646--682},
title = {{Exploring relationships between setting up complex tasks and opportunities to learn in concluding whole-class discussions in middle-grades mathematics instruction}},
url = {http://www.nctm.org/publications/article.aspx?id=37550},
volume = {44},
year = {2013}
}