Learning Discourse Discursive approaches to research in mathematics education [Hardcover]

The authors of this volume claim that mathematics can be usefully re-conceptualized as a special form of communication. As a result, the familiar discussion of mental schemes, misconceptions, and cognitive conflict is transformed into a consideration of activity, patterns of interaction, and communication failure. By equating thinking with communicating, the discursive approach also deconstructs the problematic dichotomy between individual and social research perspectives.

Guest Editorial. Acknowledgements. There is more to discourse than meets the ears: Looking at thinking as communicating to learn more about mathematical learning; A. Sfard. Educational forms of initiation in mathematical culture; B. van Oers. Cultural, discursive psychology: A socio-cultural approach to studying the teaching and learning of mathematics; S. Lerman. The multiple voices of a mathematics classroom community; E. Forman, E. Ansell. 'Can any fraction be turned into a decimal?' A case study of a mathematical group discussion; M.C. O'Connor. The mathematical discourse of 13-year-old partnered problem solving and its relation to the mathematics that emerges; C. Kieran. Making mathematical meaning through dialogue: 'Once you think of it, the Z minus three seems pretty weird'; V. Zack, B. Graves. Commentary Papers: From describing to designing mathematical activity: The next step in developing a social approach to research in mathematics education? C. Hoyles. Research on discourse in the mathematics classroom: A commentary; F. Seeger. Instructions for Authors.