An Analysis of Math Congress in an Eighth Grade Classroom

Abstract

A “math congress” is a pedagogical approach in which students present their solutions from their mathematical work completed individually, in pairs, or in small groups, and share and defend their mathematical thinking. Mathematical artifacts presented during math congress remain on display as community records of practice. Math congress has four key functions: To highlight and document key mathematical concepts, to emphasize connections between different mathematical strategies, to facilitate conceptual development, and to scaffold learning by drawing attention to the efficiency of particular strategies. The goal of the research was to analyze the role of the math congress in eighth-grade students' development of mathematical thinking. Results suggest that while math congress was helpful for some students, other students articulated continued uncertainty about their mathematical thinking. Pedagogical recommendations as well as future research direction are discussed.

Acknowledgments

This research was generously funded by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Standard research grant. Thanks to Mr. Duane Heide and his students for participating in this research. Sincere thanks also to Drs. Lyn English, Paul Cobb, and Erna Yackel for their invaluable feedback on early drafts of this manuscript.

Notes

¹Additional mathematical problems used in the classroom are also described in the Results section.

²The authors acknowledge that the context of the problem could have been more reality based. That is, asking campers to share a sandwich in the way that was outlined is not ideal. A more relevant question would be to ask the students to cut the sandwich in such a way to ensure each camper receives one piece. This being said, the classroom excerpt still has powerful explanatory potential and was referenced in mathcam video diaries as being instrumental in providing increased clarity.

³A “sub” (or “submarine”) is a sandwich that is often 12 inches long (or “foot long”) that potentially contains a variety of meats, cheeses, and/or vegetables.