Exploring qualitative changes in children's mathematics task and strategy conceptualisation using microgenetic research designs

This is a Centre for Research in Mathematics Education seminar

Presented by Charis Voutsina, Southampton Education School, University of Southampton

Microgenetic research designs entail highly-concentrated observation of learners’ behaviour within specific periods of time, aiming at capturing change in learning as it occurs. I will present a brief overview of the method with reference to some of the most significant studies that have been conducted utilising microgenetic designs for examining children’s strategy change in mathematics. Subsequently, I will focus on selected examples from two different qualitative microgenetic studies that aimed at tracing changes in young children’s behaviour when solving an additive numerical task and fraction word problems respectively. For these particular examples the focus of analysis is not only on changes in what children ‘do’ in problem solving but also on exploration of changes that occur in what children ‘say’; that is, their verbalised reasoning and explanations, when patterns of strategy use develop but also when such patterns of use remain stable or regress. Implications for how change in learning can be captured and conceptualised are discussed.