Examining Classroom Interactions in Secondary Mathematics Classrooms in Brunei Darussalam

Abstract

This study examined the classroom interactions in three secondary mathematics classrooms in Brunei Darussalam. Investigations were conducted on whether the types of classroom interactions (be it public or private) may have any direct effects on Year 10 students’ learning of mathematics. The participants involved in this study were three mathematics teachers and 78 Year 10 students. Data were collected by video-recording a sequence of three lessons for each of the three classes, the use of lesson feedback forms (which included a questionnaire on code-switching) distributed to the students and student interviews. The results of the study revealed that majority of the lesson time for all three classes were spent on public interaction (78.9%) rather than private interaction (10.4%). Moreover, it was found that the types of interaction have no direct effect on the students’ learning; rather it is how the teacher carried out these interaction types that can affect the students’ learning. From the results of the questionnaires on code-switching, there was an almost evenly divided preference for code-switching (Malay and English) and using ‘English only’ as the medium of instruction among the student participants. It seems that code-switching is only useful in helping the students to understand the lesson better; however it does not necessarily mean that the secondary students learned better when the teacher code-switched during the lesson.