Supporting students' development of mathematical explanation: A case of explaining a definition of fraction

Minsung Kwon (1)

1 University of Michigan [Ann Arbor]

This paper aims to conceptualize the work of supporting students' development of mathematical explanation. To provide an empirical basis, I analyse instructional interactions managed by the same teacher for teaching the brown rectangle problem for different cohorts of students across five years. The four core tasks of teaching are (1) attending to the organic structure of the mathematical task; (2) mapping the scope of answers onto the targeted mathematical ideas; (3) hearing the mathematical needs embedded in students' explanations; and (4) distributing and building a mathematical talk collectively.

Mots clés: Decomposition; the work of teaching; mathematical explanation; fraction

Domaines: Education; Histoire et perspectives sur les mathématiques [math.HO]

Minsung Kwon. Supporting students' development of mathematical explanation: A case of explaining a definition of fraction. CERME 9 - Ninth Congress of the European Society for Research in Mathematics Education, Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Education; ERME, Feb 2015, Prague, Czech Republic. pp.3058-3064. ⟨hal-01289743⟩