Mathematical Communication by 5&amp;lt;sup&amp;gt;th&amp;lt;/sup&amp;gt; Grade Students’ Gestures in Lesson Study and Open Approach Context

Yanin Kongthip,Maitree Inprasitha,Auijit Pattanajak,Narumol Inprasitha

doi:10.4236/psych.2012.38097

Abstract

The objective of this research was to explore the Mathematical Communication by 5th grade students’ gestures in Lesson Study and Open Approach context. This study was conducted at Nongtoom-nong- ngu-lerm School, and Ban-Beung-neum-beung-krai-noon School, Muang District, Khon Kaen Province in Project for Professional development of Mathematics teachers through Lesson Study and Open Approach, using qualitative research: Ethnographic Study, in-depth interview, Video Analysis supported by protocol analysis, and Descriptive Analysis. The research findings found that there were 7 kinds of students’ Mathematical Communication by students’ Gestures including 1) rigorousness by students’ beat gesture; 2) rigorousness by students’ metaphoric gesture; 3) economy by students’ deictic gesture; 4) economy by students’ iconic gestures; 5) freedom by students’ deictic gesture; 6) freedom by students’ iconic gesture; and 7) freedom by students’ deictic and iconic gestures in explaining students’ Mathematical Ideas, and the most commonly used economically by deictic gestures, and students’ self learning in Open Approach. Furthermore, the schools in Lesson Study and Open Approach context, the students had opportunity in learning based on their potentiality, being able to think, perform, and express. They preferred to express divergent think.

Highlights

The National Education Act in A.D. 1999, the Educational Reform Act for Further Development of the Thai People, had provided the national education guidelines to focus on
The teacher shad to prepare for lesson in most of mathematics teachers in Thailand, who worked alone, and wanted to teach complete content as scheduled in the program
This group of teachers used lecturing, discussing, and demonstrating to their students. They assigned a lot of homework assignments in order to practice thinking based on pattern specified by the teacher or techniques in the text to be skilful and memorized (Inprasitha, 2003) and the Basic Education Core Curriculum in A.D. 2008, the current reform movements in Thai school Mathematics still kept this mathematical learning process

Summary

Introduction

The National Education Act in A.D. 1999, the Educational Reform Act for Further Development of the Thai People, had provided the national education guidelines to focus on. This group of teachers used lecturing, discussing, and demonstrating to their students They assigned a lot of homework assignments in order to practice thinking based on pattern specified by the teacher or techniques in the text to be skilful and memorized (Inprasitha, 2003) and the Basic Education Core Curriculum in A.D. 2008, the current reform movements in Thai school Mathematics still kept this mathematical learning process. Most of classrooms still offer traditional teaching model including teaching sequences as: the teacher reviewed lesson, studying new knowledge in worksheet, or lecturing new knowledge, doing exercise, examining the answer, and concluding the lesson (Pasjuso, Thinwiengtong, & Kongthip, 2010) Those classrooms was a communication pattern started by the teacher’s question, the students’ answers, and the teacher’s evaluation in students’ responses (Wood, 1998). Mathematics teaching for supporting the students’ meaningful learning needed to be based on including the classroom innovation using Lesson Study, and Open Approach as the classroom offering various opportunities for every student to learn Mathematics meaningfully according to one’s own potentiality as well as student-centered classroom (Inprasitha, Loipha, & Silanoi, 2006)

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