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How was discussion managed?

In about half the lesson observed there was a clear central question or idea being repeated over and over again, for example the comparison between empirical and theoretical probability; equivalence of expressions; the relationship between different levels of the same family of metric units; predict and test; etc. The teacher kept attention on this central issue so that at the end of the lesson, whatever else had happened, everyone knew what it had been about at some level.

In others there were more ideas around and no one particular thing focused on at the start or end. In these lessons the focus appeared to be more about ways of working and kinds of mathematical activity. In some there was wide variety of mathematics going on and no central discussion at all. In one lesson we observed there was no mathematics, only organisation of study methods and materials.

We were struck that in the second and third years of the project teachers used a combination of 'calling out' and asking named people in order to generate participation in discussion, where at the start of year 7 they were more concerned with establishing habits of 'hands-up' and listening to each other. We wondered if these early habits were to develop good discussion habits which could then be assumed later on. On the other hand over-reliance on calling out might allow some to dominate.