Capturing struggling students’ mathematics difficulties holistically: towards a characterization of Mathematics Discourse Participation Profiles

The research in this thesis aims to develop a holistic description of struggling students' mathematics difficulties, taking into account cognitive, affective, and social dimensions. Specifically, I take a discursive perspective to study how high school students with a history of persistent low achievement in mathematics come to participate in such a discourse. I do this with the firm belief that an inclusive education must begin with a thorough examination of students' actual educational needs, which go beyond the purely cognitive. Indeed, achieving a more holistic perspective on students' difficulties should enable the development of activities and resources that address those needs or can be adapted accordingly; however, no study in mathematics education has yet achieved such a perspective. This study is part of a broader project called DynaMat (PRIN2020BKWEXR) with the aim of: defining a multidimensional construct that captures the essence of students' participation in mathematics; designing and experimenting technology-enhanced mathematics remedial activities for 10th-grade students with a history of low achievement in mathematics. This thesis addresses the aim of outlining a student's Mathematics Discourse Participation Profile (MDPP), a construct, developed within the Commognitive theory, that comprises two essential components: mathematizing, which encompasses the cognitive dimensions; and identifying, which addresses the non-cognitive dimensions. The MDPP also describes the relationships between such components, expressing them through specific metadiscursive rules. This thesis also investigates potential changes in a student's MDPP over a brief time. Data were collected at CARME in Pistoia, Italy.