Campus Location

Abilene Campus

Date of Award

Spring 5-7-2021

Document Type

Manuscript

Department

Teacher Education

Degree Name

Master of Education in Teaching and Learning

First Advisor

Andrew Huddleston

Abstract

Whole group math talks, or number talks, are a common practice to get students talking about their own understanding of mathematical concepts. The purpose of this study was to implement math talks in small group settings to see what would happen, specifically to students’ conceptual understanding as well their general perceptions of math talks. This study took place in a fourth-grade math classroom, and math talks were implemented with the whole class for a week and then moved to small groups for the remaining three weeks of the study. During the study, a pre-and post-assessment was given, field notes were taken, and focus groups and interviews were conducted. All data was analyzed using the constant comparative method, looking for recurring themes and descriptive statistics was used to analyze numerical data. The data revealed three major themes: content and processes, language’s crucial role, and math confidence.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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