Abstract as per original application
(English/Chinese): |
Recently, education reforms have taken place worldwide in response to the diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds of student populations, as facilitated by international mobility. In Hong Kong, the local mathematics curriculum stresses the need to address mathematics learning for ethnic minority (EM) students who, in addition to the mathematical content, are simultaneously learning the language of instruction and the language specific to the mathematics register. As communication is an essential process for learning mathematics, teaching EM students mathematics poses instructional challenges. Equity concerns have grown as a result of EM students’ low academic achievements, especially in mathematics.
With their limited vocabulary, EM students use multiple resources (e.g. home language, gestures, and visual representations) to communicate mathematically. Thus, teachers must be able to recognise and support this multimodal communication. However, little is known about how multimodal forms of communication can be effectively leveraged in mathematics classrooms. Although technological resources for multimodal mathematics learning are available in Hong Kong schools in the form of touchscreen-based dynamic and multi-representational environments (DMEs), teachers are not equipped to utilise them in their practice, especially in supporting EM students.
This study’s dual aims are: (1) to develop Hong Kong teachers’ expertise in supporting EM students’ mathematical learning in multimodal, technological learning environments, (2) to uncover EM students’ competences in mathematical activities in DMEs through examining their multimodal discourse (e.g. words, gestures, and touchscreen dragging). Using the theoretical framing of commognition (i.e. thinking-as-communicating), this study collects qualitative data comprising the videotaped teaching sessions of six primary school mathematics teachers and 24 EM students from grades 1 to 6. In both research cycles, each teacher participant will engage in five co-planning, teaching, and post-teaching reflection sessions. The analysis will be twofold. First, it will focus on teachers’ practices in response to the EM students’ mathematical thinking during DME-enhanced learning activities. Second, it will examine the EM students’ communication as supported by touchscreen-based DMEs using the PI’s previously developed multimodal discourse analysis.
This study underscores the importance of considering EM students’ non-linguistic forms of communication to facilitate mathematical learning in Hong Kong schools and beyond. It presents implications for teacher professional development regarding the use of dynamic and multi-representational technology in today’s multilingual mathematics classrooms. It advances a non-deficit, multimodal view of communication and informs future studies on capturing students’ mathematical competences through their gestures and touchscreen-dragging actions in DMEs, particularly in the case of language learners from non-dominant communities.
近年來，在國際流動的推動下，世界範圍內的教育改革都在關注學生的多元語言和文化背景。在香港，本地的數學課程也在強調關注少數族裔（EM）學生的數學學習，因為他們除了學習數學內容以外，還要同時掌握教師的教學語言和數學專用語言。由於交流是數學學習過程必不可少的環節，這為EM學生的數學教學帶來了額外的挑戰，而EM學生數學成績不理想的現狀亦令教育公平問題日益顯著。由於他們詞彙量有限，EM學生通常會借助不同的方式進行數學交流，例如母語，手勢和視覺表徵等。因此，數學老師必須能夠識別和支持這些多模式的交流活動。然而，我們對於如何在數學課堂中運用和支持多模態交流知之甚少。雖然香港的中小學已經運用科技資源，包括觸屏式的動態、多表徵數學環境（DMEs）去支持教學，教師仍然缺乏使用這些資源方面的訓練，尤其是結合這些資源去輔助EM學生的數學學習。
本研究項目的兩個目標為:（一）提高香港教師支持EM學生在多模態環境科技中學習數學的技能，（二） 通過分析EM學生在DME數學活動中的多模態語意（如言語、手勢觸屏拖動動作）去揭示他們的數學學習。本研究將採用交流認知理論的框架收集質性研究數據，包括對6名小學數學教師以及24名一至六年級EM學生的數學課堂進行錄像。在每一輪數據收集中，每位教師將參與5次合作設計、教學和課後反思。數據分析將圍繞兩方面進行。第一，關注教師如何基於EM學生在DME環境中的數學學習活動和思維作出相應的教學行為。第二，通過多模態語意分析去了解觸屏式的DME學習環境如何支持EM學生的數學交流。
本研究旨在強調香港（及其他） EM學生的非語言交流形式在數學學習中的重要性。相關的研究成果將會對如何促進教師在多語種數學課堂中使用動態、多表徵信息技術提供啟示。同時，該研究提倡一種非負面的、多模態的交流觀念，並且對於未來相關的研究有所啟示，即通過學生在DME中的手勢和触摸屏拖動動作來揭示他們的數學能力，尤其是非母語學生。
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