Growing research groves to visualize young students’ learning in small groups

Abstract

This paper stems from calls for methodological advancement in two areas of research: primary mathematics education and dialogical education. We respond to these calls from the commognitive standpoint by introducing the Grove of Realizations as a tool for capturing and visualizing individual students’ learning through collaborative work in small groups. We focus on a group of four students from a New Zealand Year 4 class (aged 8 and 9 years old), as they classified odd and even numbers and reasoned about their sums. This data is used to present the analytical affordances of the tool for (i) visualizing gaps in communication between group members, (ii) mapping their discursive development, and (iii) showing whether and how gaps are bridged within a group. The paper concludes with the discussion of the tool’s affordances and directions for further development.