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School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

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What's The Research On...?

Mathematics Education

    > Classroom Discourse

 Framing the question
Many students need to be guided in the ways of participating in subject matter classroom talk. How a student initiates an interaction is important.

Classroom Collaboration Supports Mathematical Generalizations
UW-Madison education professor Amy Ellis studies the processes that support students’ productive generalizing in their math classrooms. She considers generalization a dynamic social process as well as an individual cognitive activity. The act of making conjectures and generalizations public creates opportunities for students to respond to, accept or reject, reflect on, refine, and build on initial attempts. Students sift through ideas to pinpoint those that are mathematically powerful.