HOW DOES THE WAY IN WHICH INDIVIDUAL STUDENTS BEHAVE AFFECT THE SHARED CONSTRUCTION OF MEANING?

Abstract

Audio taped discussions between three students have been examined to shed light on the way in which the behaviour of individual students may affect the shared construction of meaning with graphical calculators. These discussions revealed a complex pattern of interaction between the students. Each student was responsible for defining his or her own role within the discourse and these roles appeared to change as the discussion progressed. With reference to the framework offered by Winbourne and Watson (1998), it is proposed that local communities of practice have been established and that the individual student's positioning within the community of practice determines their success as a learner and contributes towards the creation of shared knowledge.