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Student talk in large-size mathematics classrooms: a case study of a sequence of ten consecutive lessons in China

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Abstract

This study aims to reveal features of student talk over a sequence of consecutive mathematics lessons in a large-size class in mainland China. By examining the time allocation for student talk and the number of Chinese characters spoken by the students, this study finds that, in some of the lessons observed, student talk added up to a longer duration and included a larger number of Chinese characters than teacher talk. But individual students were observed to have unequal opportunities to participate in public talk and there is a large gap regarding the number of Chinese characters that an individual student could speak in public. Each individual student’s accountability to talk was recorded to be less diverse in public presentation than in non-presentation contexts (e.g., answering teacher questions). This study suggests that a unit of consecutive lessons can help a clearer and more comprehensive observation and analysis of student talk.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by Beijing Normal University and The University of Melbourne. The video data in this study was from the database co-established by Prof. Yiming Cao at Beijing Normal University and Prof. David Clarke at The University of Melbourne. We gratefully thank Prof. Ron Tzur at University of Colorado Denver for his comments on the earlier version of this paper.

Funding

This research was funded by China National Education Sciences Grant (2018): Middle School Students’ Cognitive interaction and Social interaction in Collaborative Problem Solving (Grant No. BHA180157).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Science, Minzu University of China, No. 27, Zhongguancun South Avenue, Haidian District, Beijing, 100081, People’s Republic of China

    Lianchun Dong

  2. Melbourne Graduate School of Education, The University of Melbourne, 234 Queensberry Street, Carlton, VIC, 3010, Australia

    Wee Tiong Seah & David Clarke

  3. School of Mathematical Sciences, Beijing Normal University, No. 19, XinJieKouWai Street, HaiDian District, Beijing, 100875, China

    Yiming Cao

  4. International Center for Research in Mathematics Education, Beijing Normal University, No. 19, XinJieKouWai Street, HaiDian District, Beijing, 100875, China

    Yiming Cao

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  1. Lianchun Dong
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  2. Wee Tiong Seah
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  3. Yiming Cao
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  4. David Clarke
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Correspondence to Yiming Cao.

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Dong, L., Seah, W.T., Cao, Y. et al. Student talk in large-size mathematics classrooms: a case study of a sequence of ten consecutive lessons in China. Asia Pacific Educ. Rev. 20, 449–466 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12564-019-09577-1

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