Fostering Students' Mathematics Communication in Measurement: A Grade 3 Teacher's Perceptions and Practices

This study explores and describes the teaching perceptions and practices of a Grade 3 teacher as she attempts to foster students’ mathematics communication skills in the content strand of measurement. For this inquiry, the qualitative data collected were: 1) semi-structured teacher interviews, and 2) classroom observations. The categories of program planning, learning environment, mathematics tasks, knowledge construction, technology, manipulatives, and assessment were identified and presented. The data for this case study were first organized, analyzed, and interpreted within sub-units of lesson vignettes. Afterwards, the identified teaching perceptions and practices from the lesson vignettes were consolidated, and presented as a “whole” case. The sub-units and whole-case analysis identified five major findings related to the topic of fostering students’ mathematics communication in the classroom. Summarized, these are: 1) Teachers need to create opportunities for students to productively struggle with increasingly abstract concepts. The appropriate selection of mathematics tasks, the discussions on mathematical misconceptions, and the posing of effective questions may guide and encourage students as they express their understanding and misconceptions. 2) Teachers need to foster students' self-monitoring and self-assessment skills, as students communicate their emerging mathematical thoughts. 3) Teachers should strive to provide students with opportunities to learn to reason and justify their perspectives. Such opportunities can occur as students read, write, draw, and/or listen to recently learned mathematical concepts. 4) Teachers should intentionally define and explore various meanings and usages of subject-specific and unit-specific vocabularies. The learning of increasingly abstract ideas (e.g. area and perimeter) requires the acquisitions of new vocabularies, so that meanings can be more clearly articulated by the students. 5) When teaching and learning the topic of measurement, various education components such as program planning, learning environment, mathematics tasks, constructing knowledge, technology and manipulatives, and assessment are often intricately and purposefully linked with one another.Ph.D