An exploratory study of teacher orchestration of collaborative Mathematics tasks in relation to learning and interaction in primary schools

Abstract

This study explores what we can learn about the interactions between teachers and students during small-group collaborative Mathematics tasks, nested with in a classroom setting from the study of multiple audio-visual streams synchronised with each other and with a detailed transcript. The ability to capture and study large quantities of detailed data using new digital temporal analysis tools presents both a great challenge and a great opportunity for researchers. This study explores quantitative means of triaging this data, looking for salient features in teacher-student interactions. Patterns of association found to be present in the data were then qualitatively examined in detail using the tool.

This examination highlighted the potential for new forms of synchronous temporal analysis to develop our understanding of important facet s of teacher-student interaction in small group collaborative Mathematics activities which were previously shown to be significant in past research but which were not developed in greater detail in large part because the data capture and analysis technology was not present. The study looks in detail at the Engle & Conant teacher interaction coding framework (2002), focusing on the specific use of problematization utterances in the tasks. The functions which these in relation to the success of a group of students is explored.

The varied granularity of the data available in the temporal analysis also highlighted the importance of a teacher orchestration artifice which, though familiar to teaching practitioners, is overlooked in the research literature. The mini-plenary, a brief transition orchestrated by the teacher between group and whole-class interaction then back again was explored and the possible reasons why this was instigated were discussed. The practice is then discussed in relation to the existing literature on the orchestration of classroom interaction. , .It is part of the SynergyNet project which looked at developing tools and pedagogies to meet the challenges of technology rich classrooms, specifically focusing on multi-touch tables. Ninety-six 11 year-old students participated in the study from six different schools. Their grouping was varied by school, room orientation, gender and teacher.