Learning Mathematics in a Classroom Community of Inquiry

Social Constructivism and Teaching of Social Science

“…They also respond thoughtfully to views of others. This process leads them to be a member of the 'community of inquiry' (Goss 2004). The whole class benefits from 'sum of cognition' as when the class is divided into groups , a new social context was created, in which students get the opportunity to share individual cognition with their peers and arrive at conclusions based on the sum of those cognitions (Slavin, 1995).…”

Scaffolding norms of argumentation-based inquiry in a primary mathematics classroom

“…Scaffolding classroom talk in small group and whole class discussion is a key concern for classroom-based inquiry because of its emphasis on sense-making (Brown et al, 1989;Goos, 2004), collaboration (Quintana et al, 2004), and the need for making thinking visible (Wells, 2014;Linn, 2000). Elaborating on the research of Brown and his colleagues (1989), a scaffolding end-goal of handover to independence in an inquiry-based environment would focus on students' confidence to use peers as social and cognitive resources.…”

“…Our focus on argumentation practices in inquiry emphasised the negotiation and classroom discourse aspects. There is intellectual risk in being willing to generate emerging ideas and anticipate critique in these situations, emphasising the relationship between cognitive and long-term social scaffolding that engages student trust (Goos, 2004;Siegel & Borasi, 1996;Webb et al, 2014;Williams & Baxter, 1996).…”

“…However, Yackel and Cobb (1996) observed in the development of norms, that students struggled with having a "taken-as-shared sense of when it is appropriate to contribute" and "the actual process by which students contribute" (p. 461, emphasis in the original). Goos (2004) argued that these norms of participation in mathematical inquiry are based on the assumption that mathematical thinking is an act of sense-making and includes argumentation. Under this assumption, the teacher would model sense-making for students and encourage them to take ownership for developing mathematical solutions, recognising the intellectual risk involved in asking students to go beyond passive listening and share incomplete ideas with others.…”

An Action Research Project by Teacher Candidates and their Instructor into using Math Inquiry: Learning about Relations between Theory and Practice

“…The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (2011) advocated for the use of high-level tasks and expectations in the teaching of mathematics, which could be accomplished with an inquiry approach (Goos, 2004). Beyond the assumptions about inquiry noted in a previous paragraph, an inquiry learning approach in math was intended for students to experience how mathematicians work (Artigue, & Blomhøj, 2013).…”