Investigating problem solving talk in early years' mathematics classrooms

Existing research illustrates that effective classroom talk practices influence the development of student’s mathematical content knowledge whilst forming a strong foundation for the development of reasoning and problem solving. However, research is predominantly situated in primary and secondary classrooms, leaving an obvious void linking classroom talk, mathematics and problem solving in the early years of school. The study aimed to address this issue.
The dominance of the Initiation-Response- Evaluation pattern of classroom talk is well researched and evident in classroom practice. While research is slowly emerging to counter or leverage the IRE and to provide extended opportunities for student turns-at-talk, there exists an absence of empirical work which investigates how talk-in-interaction is accomplished in mathematics problem solving lessons in the first years of formal schooling. This research investigated ways that talk-in-interaction can accomplish interactional and mathematical problem solving in Kindergarten, Year One and Year Two classrooms (students between 5-8 years of age).
Employing an ethnomethodological stance in conjunction with the analytic approach of conversation analysis, this research analysed detailed transcriptions of recordings of talk produced moment by moment in classroom interactions between students and teachers in mathematics problem solving lessons. Video and audio recordings captured the naturally occurring talk-in-interaction during instances of problem solving in the lessons. The Jefferson notation system was employed to produce detailed representations of the talk which emerged in these lessons. Selected interactional phenomenon were subject to a fine-grained analysis of interactions comprising problem solving talk between teachers and students in whole class discussions and student-to-student interactions.
The first analytic chapter examines withholding of repair by the teacher. This interactional resource accomplished student repair in mathematical problem solving talk. The analysis of repair sequences provides insight into teacher turns at talk, as the teacher withholds repair and employs questions requiring student reasoning for repair. This chapter reveals the phenomenon of ‘repair’ employed by the teacher and students to co-construct mathematics problem solving talk.
The second analytic chapter examines student-to-student dispute and reveals the complexity of the interactional resources used by young students as they engage in sustained dispute whilst employing direct opposition, alignment, and justification to defend their position as well as refute the arguments of others as they solve mathematical and interactional problems. This analysis also reveals the ways in which student-to-student dispute and dominant third party intervention contributed to and altered the nature of the dispute.
The third analytic chapter establishes the ways in which ‘why interrogative’ form a teacher-student talk pattern that affords students’ displays of mathematical reasoning. The teacher’s ‘why’ question in the third turn of the sequence made relevant a student response that provided a reasoning response, frequently in turns beginning with ‘because’.
The findings of this study contribute to understandings of interactional phenomena utilised by teachers and students, as they accomplish talk and interaction in mathematics lessons. Findings reveal the complexity of the problem solving talk competently produced by students as they employ the phenomenon of repair, dispute, and reasoning to navigate both interactional and mathematical problem solving.