Introduction: Explaining Instructional Explanations

Abstract

The explanatory fragment above comes from an extended classroom discussion in mathematics. The discussion had descriptions, posed problems, supported debates, and it also contained explanations. Explanations are particularly powerful moments in teaching, and while each explanatory moment is unique, constrained by classroom histories, subject matter conventions, and instructional goals, there are some core features present in effective instructional explanations that tend to be absent in less effective ones. Much of my work has been concerned with the patterns and forms associated with effective explanations in different subject areas. Instructional explanations are important because they “carry” the overall pedagogical messages of the classroom through both style and stance and because they contain critical elements of legitimacy, modality, and function from the discipline whether that discipline is history, mathematics, physics, or poetry. Instructional Explanations, whether delivered by the teacher alone or through the process of focused discussion, are a central deliberate act of teaching