Reminder!: Artemeva -- The writing’s on the board: An international study of chalk talk genre in teaching undergraduate mathematics

The writing’s on the board: An international study of chalk talk genre in teaching
undergraduate mathematics 

Associate Professor Natasha Artemeva 

Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada 

Date: Friday 6th May 2011 

Time: 12.00 – 13.00 pm 

Venue: Education Lecture Theatre 351, The University of Sydney 

In this presentation I report on a large-scale longitudinal international study of the
teaching of undergraduate mathematics in six countries (Artemeva & Fox, 2010).  It was
informed by an integrated socio-cultural theoretical framework (Artemeva, 2008), which
brings together Rhetorical Genre Studies (RGS), Activity Theory, and theories of
situated learning (e.g., Artemeva & Freedman, 2006; Freedman & Medway, 1994; Miller,
1984).  In this framework pedagogical genres are viewed as meditational tools employed
by teachers in the activity of teaching.  Study participants (n=55) differed in
linguistic, cultural and educational backgrounds, years of teaching, and their language
of instruction.  The study demonstrates that chalk talk, namely, writing out a
mathematical narrative on the board while talking aloud, is the central pedagogical
genre of the undergraduate mathematics lecture classroom.  Drawing on audio/video
recorded lectures, observational notes, semi-structured interviews, and written
artifacts, I report on what repeats and what differs in the enactment of the chalk talk
genre across international sites and participants.  The findings suggest that powerful
pedagogical genres, like chalk talk, which develop within disciplinary communities of
practice, override linguistic and cultural differences across contexts of instruction.