Negotiation of Mathematical Meaning in Classroom Processes: Social Interaction and Learning Mathematics

Abstract

In this chapter, teaching and learning mathematics are viewed as linked in the local processes of classroom interaction. The special interest is in how mathematical meanings are negotiated and become taken to be shared in the classroom discourse. In the first section, general aspects of mathematics learning in a cultural context are discussed with regard to different schools of thought. Is mathematical meaning really a matter under negotiation? Why are social aspects intrinsic to learning mathematics? In the second section, several specific findings and theoretical concepts of the negotiation of mathematical meaning are presented. Why is ambiguity an essential feature of discourse in mathematics lessons? Through which regularities can knowledge be taken to be shared in spite of the teacher's and the students' different background understandings? In the third section, relations between mathematics learning and social interaction are discussed. Is learning mathematics an effect of social regulations or does it occur when overcoming the entanglement in the regulations? In all sections, several classroom scenes and specific findings of ethnographical studies are used to illustrate abstract statements.