Let’s Give Them Something to Talk About (Journal Article)

***______{For Hard Copy, Please visit Library.}________***

Abstract: Student learning of a mathematical concept increases when students can have meaningful discussions about mathematics. When students have meaningful discussions, teachers can use what is discussed to facilitate connections for students from what they know to more formal mathematics (Steffe & Olive, 2014; Van de Walle et al., 2014). However, not all tasks that students encounter are conducive to fostering discussion. Therefore, an essential factor in facilitating student discussion is planning tasks that actually provide students with something to talk about. One type of task that has shown consistent promise for promoting student-to-student discourse is that of open tasks.