Whole class interactive teaching in the English primary mathematics classroom: underpinning or undermining learning?

This paper reports on the particular ways in which two primary teachers manage the discourse of the whole class teaching phases of their lessons to create opportunities for their students to acquire an understanding of mathematical concepts and skills. The English educational authorities recommend that all primary mathematics lessons should comprise three parts, each of which has a substantial whole-class set component. Evidence indicates that teachers are being judged effective against superficial adherence to behavioural strategies rather than the cognitive gains of their students. This paper, by means of an analysis of two teachers’ practice in respect of the whole-class teaching phases of their lessons, examines the extent to which such superficial characteristics are privileged over meaningful attempts to structure learning. Data collection was undertaken over a period of a year with six mathematics lessons being videotaped for each teacher. To facilitate analysis each lesson was also transcribed. Two theoretical frameworks have informed my analysis. The first, drawing on the work of Robin Alexander, examines classroom interactions against three notions of pace: organisational, interactive, and cognitive or semantic pace. The second, drawing on the work of James Gibson, examines the interactions from the perspective of the affordances and constraints embedded within them. Initial findings suggest that despite clear behavioural similarities in respect of recommended behaviours, the ways in which they manage the whole class interactive phases of their lessons create very different learning opportunities for their students