ERIC Number: EJ1091429
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2015
Pages: 18
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1479-4802
EISSN: N/A
Responding In-the-Moment: Learning to Prepare for the Unexpected
Mason, John
Research in Mathematics Education, v17 n2 p110-127 2015
Becoming aware of something unexpected can be a form of awakening: sharpening attention, enriching noticing, opening up fresh possibilities of action, and educating awareness so as to enable a sensitive response to similar situations in the future. However it can also trigger tunnel vision (few if any actions available) or freezing (no actions available), and so reaction based on automated habitual actions. A variety of types of unexpected classroom incidents are used to support the case that surprise is a release of energy, that disturbance is what initiates learning, and that what matters even more than noticing an opportunity is how that opportunity is taken up, how the released energy is used. Drawing on the perspective of multiple selves, of human beings as transformers of energy, on a six-fold structure of the human psyche, and on the Discipline of Noticing, proposals are made as to how it is not only possible but desirable to prepare for the unexpected.
Descriptors: Perception, Expectation, Mathematics, Mathematical Concepts, Mathematics Instruction, Mathematics Teachers, Familiarity, Attention, Phenomenology
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A