Dr. Rotem Abdu
The Constantiner School of Education and the Sagol School of Neuroscience
Teachers’ noticing of dialogue in computer-supported collaborative mathematics learning
Project description
Fostering topic-specific collaborative learning dialogue between students is a fundamental educational goal. Still, the effectiveness of a collaborative learning (CL) situation depends on what learners do (e.g., listen to each other). Studies on computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) have shown the benefits of technology and pedagogical approaches to nurture CL. However, studies applying CSCL within classroom contexts have raised concerns regarding teachers’ ability to give feedback to the various multidimensional interactions between students and technology. Learning analytics can help teachers monitor students’ thinking about a specific topic, so how can teachers foster dialogues in such potentially favorable conditions?
This design–research project uses the professional noticing paradigm (listen to, interpret and respond) to query how mathematics teachers (can learn to) notice dialogue in CSCL. I first query how teachers notice dialogues using an existing corpus of video data before and after introducing these teachers to central ideas on noticing and dialogue. By that, I hope to understand both what teachers need to know to support dialogue and how they respond to such guidance. Later into this project, I will create a teacher-training program on fostering students’ dialogues and conduct a study about the effects of teacher support on students’ mathematics learning. The results of this project can inform teachers and lecturers who wish to apply CSCL.
About me
I am an educational researcher with a background in Computer Engineering (B.Sc.) and User Experience Engineering (M.Sc.) and a Ph.D. in Learning Sciences. My preferred modus operandi for educational research is design-based research—drawing theoretical insights into the phenomena of teaching and learning by developing, implementing, and evaluating educational design solutions. I focus on mathematics learning and instruction with dynamic mathematics environments coupled with learning analytics systems. I apply mixed research methods to evaluate how to foster students’ sociocultural, physical, and cognitive abilities in ways conducive to mathematical reasoning, building on cognitive and sociocultural philosophical and theoretical paradigms.
My current research endeavors include the design and research of pedagogical and technological solutions to foster dialogic pedagogy, including studies on teachers noticing of dialogue, dialogic implications to content-specific learning analytics design, how teachers can learn to use learning analytics to enhance content-specific learning interactions, and modelling multimodal mathematics learning (dialogue) from a complex dynamic systems perspective.
For further reading, please visit my google scholar page.