July 2003, Vol. 34, Issue 4
Low-Performing Students and Teaching Fractions for Understanding: An Interactional Analysis
Susan B. Empson
This article presents an analysis of two low-performing students' experiences in a firstgrade
classroom oriented toward teaching mathematics for understanding. Combining constructs from interactional sociolinguistics and developmental task analysis, I
investigate the nature of these students' participation in classroom discourse about
fractions. Pre- and post-instruction interviews documenting learning and analysis of classroom interactions suggest mechanisms of that learning. I propose that three main factors account for these two students' success: use of tasks that elicited the students' prior understanding, creation of a variety of participant frameworks (Goffman, 1981)
in which the students were treated as mathematically competent, and frequency of opportunities for identity-enhancing interactions.
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