716
Views
3
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Articles

An examination of monolingual preservice teachers’ set-up of cognitively demanding mathematics tasks with emergent multilingual students

ORCID Icon & ORCID Icon
Pages 208-228 | Received 26 Nov 2017, Accepted 22 Apr 2019, Published online: 11 Jul 2019
 

ABSTRACT

Implementing challenging mathematics tasks with multilingual students who are not yet fluent in the instructional language is difficult for monolingual teachers because of the linguistic and cultural differences between the teacher and students. In this study, we examined how monolingual preservice teachers set up cognitively demanding mathematics tasks with emergent bilingual/multilingual students (a.k.a. English language learners). Drawing on a situated and socio-cultural perspective, we analysed the strategies enacted by two preservice teachers, who consistently maintained the cognitive demand of tasks with emergent bilinguals in a one-on-one setting, during the set-up phase of problem-solving activities. We found common aspects of their set-up including assessing student’s holistic understanding, building a common experience, and empowering students. Our findings help articulate strategies that aid monolingual teachers in effectively enacting cognitively demanding tasks and improving emergent bilinguals’ access to and engagement with high-quality mathematics.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Reprints and Corporate Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

To request a reprint or corporate permissions for this article, please click on the relevant link below:

Academic Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

Obtain permissions instantly via Rightslink by clicking on the button below:

If you are unable to obtain permissions via Rightslink, please complete and submit this Permissions form. For more information, please visit our Permissions help page.