March 2005, Vol. 36, Issue 2
Initiating and Eliciting in Teaching: A Reformulation of Telling
Joanne Lobato, David Clarke, Amy Burns Ellis
We address the telling/not-telling dilemma in mathematics education. Telling is instructionally important, but has been downplayed because of (a) perceived inconsistencies between telling and constructivism, (b) increased awareness of the negative
consequences of relying too heavily on telling, and (c) a focus on "non-telling" actions as pedagogical implications of constructivism. In response, we advance a theoretical reformulation of telling as the set of teaching actions that serve the function
of stimulating students' mathematical thoughts via the introduction of new ideas into a classroom conversation. We reformulate telling in three ways: (a) in terms of the function (which involves attention to the teacher's intention, the nature of the teaching
action, and the students' interpretations of the action) rather than the form of teachers'
communicative acts; (b) in terms of the conceptual rather than procedural content of the new information; and (c) in terms of its relationship to other actions rather than as an isolated action. This reformulation resolves some of the concerns with teaching as telling and helps establish the legitimacy of providing new information within a constructivist perspective on learning.
This article is available to members of NCTM who subscribe to
Journal for Research in Mathematics Education. Don't miss outjoin now or upgrade your membership. You may also purchase this article now for online access.
Log In/Create Account
Purchase Article