A comparison of the treatment of mathematical errors arising from teacher-initiated and student-initiated interactions

International audienceThis paper explores teachers’ treatment of errors as they occur both within and outside of Initiate-Response-Evaluate (e.g., Cazden, 1988) interactions. Data are drawn from a classroom-based video study in England, involving three participating secondary mathematics teachers and six classes. This paper focusses on one of those teachers, whose lessons contained the widest range of treatment of errors. This included facilitating extended peer-to-peer turn-taking and bald negative evaluation of student contributions; the later appeared to be atypical, both in relation to the other teachers in this study and the wider literature. Analysis showed, for this teacher, indirect evaluation of errors was associated with teacher-initiated interactions, whereas bald negative evaluation was associated with student-led exchanges. Here, consideration is given to the interactional patterns related to the treatment of errors, and the potential impact on learning opportunities for students