Abstract
Drawing upon cultural historical activity theory (CHAT) perspectives, in this chapter we portray a classroom practice of problem posing that evolved with a cohort of students across Grades 4 and 5 in Sweden. In line with a language and literacy pedagogy, the classroom practice in which students utilised textbook vocabulary handed out on slips of paper (lappar in Swedish) advanced through three distinct stages namely: formulating written questions, problem posing as dyads and actively posing problems to one another. Mediated explicitly by lappar, such a practice provided social and public opportunities for students to attribute personal meaning and make conscious use of words in semiotic activity, as well as appropriate cultural meaning and valid norms of use. The increasing gain and display of agency by students in this practice, informed by student(s)-acting-with-lappar-as-mediational-means as unit of analysis, was indicative of their self-regulation, volition and independence. Developmental in approach, such classroom practice was born through teacher–researcher collaboration.
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Acknowledgments
Sharada wishes to thank The Graduate Center, City University of New York (CUNY), USA, for hosting her as Visiting Fellow during the academic year 2012–2013. We wish to thank Cecelia Persson for the time and space she provided for this study. We look forward to co-authoring further reporting from this study with her.
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Gade, S., Blomqvist, C. (2015). From Problem Posing to Posing Problems via Explicit Mediation in Grades 4 and 5. In: Singer, F., F. Ellerton, N., Cai, J. (eds) Mathematical Problem Posing. Research in Mathematics Education. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6258-3_9
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