Norms and Mathematical Proficiency

How do classroom behavioral expectations support the development of students' mathematical reasoning? A sixth-grade teacher and his students developed this example while discussing a ratio comparison problem.

Práctica docente en la escuela primaria y la producción de textos: el resumen

Este artículo describe la práctica docente que llevó a cabo una profesora de sexto grado de primaria (Plan 93) en la materia de español. Específicamente, se analizan las producciones escritas (resúmenes) de los estudiantes y el desarrollo de las actividades que se llevaron a cabo como parte de la elaboración de una lección del libro de texto. Se identificó que la mediación docente influye en la producción de los escritos, pero no de forma determinante debido a que los estudiantes se enfrentaron al dilema de conjugar la imprecisión de la instrucción oral del docente con las recomendaciones detalladas del guión didáctico, generando así producciones distintas a las que el guión solicitaba, pero que aun así retomaban ambas instrucciones. Por otro lado, el análisis de las producciones escritas permite explorar tanto la comprensión lectora de los estudiantes (acerca del texto que resumieron) como la estructura de los resúmenes (escrito solicitado por el guión didáctico del libro de texto) y rastrear la estrategia que siguió cada estudiante para producir su texto. El resultado del análisis de los escritos permitió explorar y reflexionar sobre los procedimientos que siguió cada estudiante para realizar un resumen, lo que a nivel microgenético podría ser representativo de actividades cognitivas de diferente orden.AbstractThis article describes the teaching practices used by a sixth grade teacher in a primary school to teach Spanish to her students (Plan 93). Specifically, we analyse the student’s written work (summary of a text) as well as the development of activities taken from a Spanish textbook. Teacher mediation is identified as influencing student’s writing however it was not the only determining factor shaping their work. The data suggest that students faced the dilemma of combining the imprecision of the teacher’s oral instruction with the detailed recommendations of the textbook instructions. This tended to generate written texts on the part of the students which, while diverging from textbook instructions to meet oral instructions, still manage to capture both sets of didactic requirements (oral and written). In addition, analysis of the written work provides opportunities to explore both the reading comprehension of students (in relation to the summarized text), as well as the structure of the abstracts (requested by the textbook instructions). This allows us to identify and trace strategies used by students to produce theirtexts. The analysis provides an opportunity to explore and reflect on the processes used by students to summarize a text which might be relevant, on a micro genetic level, to cognitive activity of a different order.Recibido: 11 de febrero de 2011Aceptado: 04 de agosto de 2011

Documentaries: Motivating the tech generation to research and write

This article describes the process, tools, and benefits of engaging highly gifted middle-school age students in producing historical documentaries. Dallas Price, a sixth-grade teacher in a self-contained public school program for highly gifted students, highlights the project components that help students develop twenty-first-century skills within a content- and inquiry-driven historical documentary project. Collaboration, communication, critical thinking, and craftsmanship are project outcomes.

Voices Inside Schools - A Charter to Educate or a Mandate to Train: Conflicts between Theory and Practice

In this article, Johanna Elena Hadden distinguishes between two very different ideas of teaching — a charter to educate and a mandate to train — through a retelling of her experience as a fifth- and sixth-grade teacher in Utah. On the one hand, Hadden asserts, some critical theorists suggest that teachers should be given a charter to educate in which they are encouraged, and expected, to challenge normative practices and policy. On the other hand, teachers are routinely given a mandate to train that requires them to follow administrative dictates without question or challenge. Hadden contends that by establishing and supporting a mandate to train, many school environments constrain teachers — through overt and hidden forms of control — from thinking and acting independently and, in turn, from training students to think and act independently. She further argues that the pressures created by administrative expectations frustrate teachers who may ultimately be forced to choose between compliance with pedagogical and curricular standards and leaving their teaching position.