Knowledge Construction and Collective Practice: At the Intersection of Learning, Talk, and Social Configurations in a Computer-Mediated Mathematics Classroom

Abstract

In this study I investigated how students' mathematical activities, and thereby their mathematical understandings, change as a function of their participation in different social configurations. I examined how the interplay between 2 social configurations-local investigations at a computer simulation and whole-class discussions-contributes to how 7th-grade students learn probabilistic reasoning. I used 2 case studies to investigate (a) how different forms of participation are linked to different social configurations, and (b) how specific discourse practices and ways of reasoning propagate across the classroom and are adopted by individual students. The analyses suggest that classroom mathematical practices are developed, in part, for the social or communicative purpose of settling disputes and not purely for their rational or cognitive value to individuals. Results also provide insight into how to design and orchestrate classroom practice, particularly computer-mediated inquiry, to foster individual learning that is situated within a classroom community oriented toward the construction of a shared understanding of probability.