ERIC Number: EJ1223668
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2019
Pages: 20
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1479-4802
EISSN: N/A
"It's Not a Calculator Thingy Because a Calculator Can't Answer the Question": Multilingual Children's Mathematical Reasoning
Assaf, Fatima; Graves, Barbara
Research in Mathematics Education, v21 n2 p168-187 2019
Drawing on sociocultural theories, this study considers the multiple resources multilingual children use to communicate mathematically. We engaged with three children and a parent, in order to understand how multilingual children express their mathematical reasoning. The family was given a mathematical problem solving activity designed to encourage discussion so that we would have access to the children's reasoning. To analyse their reasoning, we drew on established informal reasoning categories. In our analysis, we found that the number of claims far outweighed the other reasoning categories. These claims were linked by conditional relations, which suggests that the children were developing a form of argument supported by evidence. The source of evidence came primarily from the problem instructions, and the children's mathematical and world knowledge.
Descriptors: Sociocultural Patterns, Learning Theories, Multilingualism, Mathematics Instruction, Mathematical Logic, Thinking Skills, Problem Solving, Evidence, Foreign Countries, English (Second Language), Second Language Learning, Elementary School Students, Language Usage, Discourse Analysis, Indo European Languages, Native Language, Parent Child Relationship, Persuasive Discourse
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Elementary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Canada
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A