Original Research

Grade 10 teachers’ example selection, sequencing and variation during functions lessons

Hlamulo W. Mbhiza
Pythagoras | Vol 43, No 1 | a696 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/pythagoras.v43i1.696 | © 2022 Hlamulo W. Mbhiza | This work is licensed under CC Attribution 4.0
Submitted: 02 April 2022 | Published: 30 August 2022

About the author(s)

Hlamulo W. Mbhiza, Department of Mathematics Education, College of Education, University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa

Abstract

Examples that teachers choose and use are fundamental to what mathematics is taught and learned, and what opportunities for learning are created in mathematics classrooms. This qualitative multiple case study, using Sfard’s commognitive theory, draws attention to mathematics teachers’ classroom practices during functions lessons which is unexamined in the South African context. In this article, data sets include unstructured non-participant classroom observations on functions, which were videorecorded. Sfard’s commognitive theory served as an appropriate lens in interpreting and analysing teachers’ discourses and giving meaning to teachers’ classroom practices during functions lessons. The findings demonstrate that the example selection and sequences teachers used during functions lessons either constrained or enabled the development of endorsed narratives about the effect of parameters on the different families of functions.

Keywords

discourse; functions; examples; commognition; mathematics; teaching

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