PROCEEDINGS OF THE 21ST ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON RESEARCH IN UNDERGRADUATE MATHEMATICS EDUCATION
2018
San Diego, California
Here’s What You Do: Personalization and Ritual in College Students’ Algebraic Discourse
Page: 198
We present results of a discourse analysis focused on college algebra students’ uses of personal and impersonal language, references to endorsed mathematical routines, and inferences about mathematical objects in responses to a small-group problem-posing activity. We analyze students’ responses with respect to selected dimensions of the arithmetical discourse profile of Ben-Yehuda et al., and provide evidence of a positive association between impersonal language and the presence of statements about mathematical objects and their relationships. We also study the relationship between the mathematical discourse of students and the discourse espoused by curricular resources used in the course.