The teacher's responsibility in whole‐class debriefing of mathematical activity

Abstract

Prompted by recent moves in the United Kingdom to guide teachers’ practices in whole-class, direct interactive teaching, in this article, we offer an opportunity for North American mathematics educators to reflect on possibilities for whole-class teaching of mathematics. We focus particularly on the plenary aspect of lessons—what might be considered the debriefing of mathematical activity—and specifically on the teacher’s responsibility during those sessions, both to his or her students and to the authenticity of the discipline of mathematics. Drawing on data from a Grade-3 classroom and invoking complexity science as a theoretical lens to explore the classroom as a complex learning system, we present implications for teaching in whole-class debriefings of mathematical activity.