Midas Syndrome? Commognition as a Lens for Research on how Stem Sentences Feature in a Primary Mathematics Classroom

This article outlines how commognition - communication and cognition - (Sfard, 2008) was utilised as a theoretical lens to guide doctoral research. My doctoral research aims to make sense of stem sentences, which are speaking scaffolds used in primary mathematics classrooms in England. I challenge an oversimplified narrative between mathematical thinking and communication, which endorses stem sentences as faultless discursive objects or d-objects – a narrative Dr. Anna Sfard names ‘Midas syndrome’ (Sfard, 2019, p. 98). Contrary to popular opinion, stem sentences are not faultless and how they feature in everyday classroom discourse is not well documented. My significant contribution to knowledge is a critical stance towards an endorsed-by-many practice and an evaluation of the utility of theory to analyse audio-visual data from the primary mathematics classroom. To support my argument, I outline an episode of classroom observation which features commognitive conflict, where stem sentences also feature, and how a class teacher expertly navigates a learner towards a mathematical realisation through visual mediation. The article is structured using guiding principles which exemplify and evaluate the appropriateness of commognition – gathered from Sfard’s seminal work ‘Thinking as communicating: Human development, the growth of discourses, and mathematising’ (2008) and related works – and the impact on my doctoral research when observing communication-in-situ in multilingual primary mathematics classrooms.