Taking a Deeper Look at Teacher Responses to Student Mathematical Thinking in Classroom Discourse

This study aimed to investigate the pattern in two mathematics teachers’ responses to student mathematical thinking (SMT) in classroom discourse and how their responses vary depending on the mathematical potential of the SMT for learning opportunities. The results revealed that in these two cases, teachers mainly directed their responses to whole class or same student. The teachers’ dominant action was literal, demonstrating that teachers primarily provided the students with a chance to offer brief information on mathematical ideas. Most teacher responses were explicit and core, which revealed that teachers paid attention to incorporating main ideas in SMT. The results also showed that the teachers’ preferred actions may change depending on the actor and whether the instances are mathematically significant pedagogical opportunities to build on student thinking (MOST or non-MOST). The lack of responses to the MOSTs demonstrated the limitations in teachers’ ability to present appropriate learning opportunities by using SMT.