ABSTRACT
In recent years, as part of an effort to investigate and identify aspects of instruction associated with supporting students’ understanding and learning, researchers and educators have focused on the role of classroom discourse in engaging students in thinking, reasoning, and communicating understandings (Cazden, 2001). Many of these recommendations can be generalized across all content areas. For example, to incorporate these processes in mathematics instruction, teachers need to pose meaningful problems and questions, listen to students’ thinking, evaluate students’ responses and work, and decide when to clarify, model, or explain and when to encourage students’ explanations and/or student-to-student discussions (cf. Ball, Lubienski, & Mewborn, 2001; Martin, 2007; National Council of Teachers of Mathematics [NCTM], 1991, 2000). Given that these practices have not necessarily been a part of the more didactic teaching style exhibited in the United States historically (Stigler & Hiebert, 1999), experienced and novice teachers often fi nd that they are not prepared to engage students in meaningful classroom discourse. In mathematics, this situation becomes more urgent given the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) funding of the development of mathematics and science curricular materials specifi cally designed to incorporate these processes in teaching and learning (Hirsch, 2007). Consequently, teachers, professional developers, and university teacher educators need to explore approaches that develop knowledge and skills needed for facilitating discourse in mathematics.
