Shifting power into the hands of mathematics students : classroom factors that impact students' mathematical learning opportunities during groupwork

Mathematics classrooms do not look like they once did, nor should they. As a result of reform guides such as the Common Core Mathematical Practices and NCTM's Principles to Action: Ensuring Mathematical Success for All, instructional practices that offer access and more learning opportunities are increasingly encouraged to allow students to engage with mathematics in authentic and meaningful ways. Classrooms committed to this reform have implemented pedagogical tools such as groupwork and complex instruction. Through groupwork, students have opportunities to co-construct content knowledge, explain their reasoning, and evaluate the reasoning of others. To set the groundwork for groupwork, teachers must delegate some of their authority to students. This means that students are asked to take on some of the responsibilities traditionally reserved for the teacher. This delegation of authority frees the teacher up to do targeted interventions and attend to individual students' needs. Students are also granted autonomy and agency in the problem solving process, which can lead to an increase in participation and further develop students' identities as learners. However, just because the teacher delegates authority to the students does not mean that students will take up that authority as the teacher intended nor use that delegated authority to collaborate. This three-paper dissertation goes into depth of one classroom designated as an advanced seventh grade mathematics course that regularly engaged in groupwork. I utilize multiple perspectives and methodologies to investigate how different types of authority, non-legitimate power, and assumed roles are conceptualized and operationalized to promote or inhibit students' mathematical learning opportunities during collective problem solving. Paper One develops a nuanced theoretical framework for understanding authority in reform classrooms. Drawing upon sociological theories, I distinguish between different sources that legitimate the teacher's authority in the classroom. The perspectives and practices the participating teacher exercised and delegated with the goal of developing shared authority illustrated the taxonomy of teacher authority. Paper Two affirms the power inherent in curriculum. It investigates how does the nature of a mathematical task relates with students' mathematical learning opportunities during groupwork. Additionally, it examines how mathematical learning opportunities vary across groups and individual students for each of the different mathematics tasks. Through an analysis of seven small groups of students, findings showed the rating of the nature of the task was related to the amount and types of mathematical practices that students enacted. However, there were certain groups and individuals that exhibited little to no participation in the groups' practices. Paper Three does a deep dive into the ways that students' practices and roles indicate varying achievement orientations that subsequently impact to their peers' mathematical learning opportunities. This paper inquired how students' perceptions and perspectives regarding their role, learning goals, and groupwork related to how they interacted with their peers, and how those interactions and assumed roles impacted students' mathematical learning opportunities. Focusing on three small groups from Paper Two, these groups provided varying contexts to study the shifts in achievement goal orientations that impacted peer's mathematical learning opportunities. The findings offer insight into the complexity of teacher authority and student interactions when seeking to implement instructional practices intended to promote equitable mathematics learning spaces

Keywords: Education.
Advisor: Borko Hilda 
Lotan Rachel A. 
Langer-Osuna Jennifer