2013 Conference Proceedings - University of Nevada, Las Vegas

his partner about his observations, took her hand when she agreed with him, and raised themtogether to indicate they were ready to share the observations with the rest of the class.Next, the pairs were provided several sets of mass-units. The observed student declared thathe would place the first three mass-units and that his partner would mark and label each unit onthe spring scale after he placed them; then they would switch roles for the next three mass-units.This behavior suggested that he had begun to apply the notion of shared responsibility in thelearning process.In discussions with the classroom teacher following the observations, it was agreed that aninquiry approach should also be used in any additional instruction with the struggling studentsand that direct methods would not be a suitable practice to support learning with the curriculum.While one-to-one work in a tutoring situation might increase student accountability, having smallgroups might provide better opportunity for students to gain insights from each other, which, inturn, would model the whole class experience.In grade 6, although students had more school experience, navigating the complexities oflearning critical mathematics content and processes in a constructivist environment was new formany students. From our whole-class observations in grade 6, we derived themes that we termed“dilemmas” (Lampert, 1985), meaning that these features of the RMU content and pedagogyprovided struggling learners with both affordances and challenges.1. Conceptual development: There is a broad range in students’ conceptual development in themathematics topics. Class discussions were enriched by this diversity, often producingvarying points of view. When following a wide-ranging discussion became challenging forsome students to follow, the teacher had to intervene to help manage the discussion.2. Rich content: The concepts are complex (e.g., the many properties of transformations) andseveral concepts may be discussed concurrently to foster connections among them. Makingconnections among concepts and topics promoted opportunities for students to achievedeeper understanding and to think critically. Yet some students may have had difficultyseeing how concepts are related, making it necessary for the teacher to guide their thinking toconsider links between the ideas.3. Verbalization skills: Students use different terms to describe mathematical ideas. Multipleforms of representing ideas afforded students greater participation in the mathematicalProceedings of the 40 th Annual Meeting of the Research Council on Mathematics Learning 2013 202