Socializing pre-service teachers into mathematical discourse: the interplay between biliteracy and multimodality

Abstract

This is a study of the development of mathematical discourse among biliterate preservice teachers. Mathematical discourse is a multimodal discourse, in which mathematical meaning is constructed through multiple semiotic systems. Furthermore, in the continua of biliteracy framework, being able to construct meaning while drawing on multiple points of the continua promotes biliterate development. However, the ways in which biliterate pre-service teachers draw on both multimodality and biliteracy to develop mathematical discourse is a rarely researched topic. In this case study, data were gathered from participant-observation of a college mathematics class for pre-service teachers, participant interviews and small group study sessions at a public university on the U.S./Mexico border. A major component of the class was communicating mathematics meaningfully. Participant structures in which writing mediated communication were identified. In the classroom, students communicated with a variety of audiences in English, and through their participation students became socialized into mathematical discourse. However, it was in study sessions outside the classroom where students were able to draw on their biliteracy and multimodal resources more fully. In study sessions, participants used multimodality and biliteracy to engage with one another while at the same time forging an incipient identity as bilingual/biliterate teachers. Implications for teaching bilingual/biliterate college students are offered.

Transfronterizapre-service teachers managing, resisting, and coping with the demands of mathematical discourse

“…However, in addition to opportunities to write TLs, pre-service teachers benefitted from guidance and feedback from the expert. Guidance and feedback sometimes took place in the oral interactions I observed in the classroom, as reported in Esquinca (2012). For instance, at times students who presented solutions at the board might make a mistake in visual representation (drawing equivalent fractions in different sizes) or in symbolic representation (using the equal sign as a placeholder rather than in an equation).…”

“…As documented in Esquinca (2012), students had frequent opportunities to share their personal solutions to problems and to listen and give feedback on other ways of solving the same problem. With an enrollment of 25 students, the class was organized into small discussion groups.…”

“…In regard to writing, students were assigned a variety of writing activities, also analyzed elsewhere (Esquinca, 2012). In the class, students not only wrote solutions on their notebooks (for personal use and for small group sharing), but they also wrote on the board for whole group sharing.…”

Critical Theoretical Frameworks in Engineering Education: An Anti-Deficit and Liberative Approach

“…While critical theoretical frameworks are being used to challenge social practices and belief systems in engineering [1,2], there is a need to dig deeper into the consequences of research whose foci and approach situate underrepresented students as "deficient". Deficit perspectives prevent many underrepresented students and educators from participating in important learning and teaching activities, which further disadvantage students in fields such as engineering [3]. For example, deficit perspectives discourage bilingual children living in high poverty communities from participating in active learning opportunities [4,5].…”

Πρακτικές Παραγωγής Και Αναθεώρησης Γραπτών Μαθητικών Κειμένων Ως Κοινωνικοπολιτισμικής Διαδικασίας

“…Σύμφωνα με τον Esquinca (2012), ο οποίος ακολουθεί τον Halliday, ως δομή συμμετοχής ορίζεται: οι συμμετέχοντες, ο σκοπός επικοινωνίας-διεπίδρασης και ο τρόπος (mode) επικοινωνίαςδιεπίδρασης.…”