Refining Communication to Improve Mathematics Didactics: A Case Study

This paper presents a preliminary report of a case study on a lesson conducted as part of a project to introduce the Lesson Study approach to a group of teachers. The lesson which was planned collaboratively by three teachers to focus on mathematical communication and thinking was then carried out by one of the teachers. The lesson was videotaped and the communication that took place was then transcribed and interpretively analysed. The findings of the study revealed that the lesson tasks designed by the teachers were generally able to stimulate active pupil participation in the lesson. However the communication in the lesson was mostly focused on the teacher attempting to lead the pupils to arrive at his answers. While the study did raise some issues as to the way mathematical communication is carried out in the Malaysian primary classroom, it was found that the Lesson Study method was a suitable and non-threatening approach for teachers to improve and further develop mathematical communication in the classroom