Date of Award
Summer 7-31-2020
Document Type
Project (696 or 796 registration)
Degree Name
Master of Science in Curriculum & Instruction
Department
Graduate Studies
Committee Chair
Ximena Suarez-Sousa
Keywords
Mathematical Discourse, COVID-19, Coronavirus Pandemic
Abstract
The original purpose of this study was to investigate the impacts mathematical discourse has on instruction and students’ feelings about mathematics. The research would have focused on the impacts mathematical discourse has on 40 students in a 7th grade math classroom. Students would have been provided with tasks that foster and encourage discourse during instruction. Student surveys, work samples, and a Discourse Rubric would have been used to determine the impacts mathematical discourse has on instruction and students’ feelings about mathematics. Plans for this study changed due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Due to COVID-19, the research was shifted to an autoethnography. The researcher wrote about their distance learning teaching experiences for eight weeks. The journals then underwent content analysis to find reoccurring themes. The five reoccurring themes found throughout the journals were: communication with students, expressing emotions about distance learning, student work completion, work/home balance, and collaboration. From the autoethnography the researcher determined communication with students and collaboration with staff members were vital aspects of teaching during a pandemic. Communication with students allows relationships to form and increases student work completion. Collaboration with fellow staff members allows teachers to learn from each other’s ideas and challenges. They are then able to use their peers’ experiences to impact their own instruction.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Weston, Courtney, "Mathematical Discourse: Impacts on Seventh Grade Student Learning and Feelings About Mathematics" (2020). Dissertations, Theses, and Projects. 393.
https://red.mnstate.edu/thesis/393