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Patterns of non-verbal social interactions within intensive mathematics intervention contexts

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Abstract

This study examined the non-verbal patterns of interaction within an intensive mathematics intervention context. Specifically, the authors draw on social constructivist worldview to examine a teacher’s use of gesture in this setting. The teacher conducted a series of longitudinal teaching experiments with a small number of young, school-age children in the context of early arithmetic development. From these experiments, the authors gathered extensive video records of teaching practice and, from an inductive analysis of these records, identified three distinct patterns of teacher gesture: behavior eliciting, behavior suggesting, and behavior replicating. Awareness of their potential to influence students via gesture may prompt teachers to more closely attend to their own interactions with mathematical tools and take these teacher interactions into consideration when forming interpretations of students’ cognition.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Kentucky, Taylor Education Building STE 105, Lexington, KY, 40506, USA

    Jonathan Norris Thomas

  2. The Kentucky Center for Mathematics, Highland Heights, KY, USA

    Jonathan Norris Thomas

  3. University of Cincinnati, Teachers College #511C, Cincinnati, OH, 45221, USA

    Shelly Sheats Harkness

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  1. Jonathan Norris Thomas
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  2. Shelly Sheats Harkness
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Correspondence to Jonathan Norris Thomas.

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Thomas, J.N., Harkness, S.S. Patterns of non-verbal social interactions within intensive mathematics intervention contexts. Math Ed Res J 28, 277–302 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13394-015-0164-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13394-015-0164-9

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