Classroom activities: Bilingual and cultural issues in teaching two -digit numbers.

摘要

This was an exploratory study in investigating teachers' activities in real classroom situations. By depicting unique portraits of teacher's activities from in and outside of the classroom situations, this study revealed that teachers are involved with several factors beyond teaching mathematics. Interview techniques used in this study have identified some teachers' and students' difficulties in learning two-digit numbers. For example, participants in this research unanimously stated that children have serious problems in learning the base-ten structure and the place-value system. Thus, these abstract topics create substantial difficulties for teachers and students in classroom situations. The unique portraits showed that teacher priorities are generated from in and outside of the classroom situations that overshadow on their classroom activities. This qualitative research found that the students' difficulties in learning two-digit numbers on the one hand is universal considering the place-value rules and base-ten structure; on the other hand, it is a domestic issue because of cultural differences in the numbers' names and bilingual situations. Teachers' creativities in terms of teaching techniques were major findings when teachers faced serious problems such as bilingualism in the classroom. For instance, teaching two-digit numbers by songs or through teacher-made stories could help bilingual students to develop number sense. Therefore, these creative activities can be a new resource and new direction in mathematics teacher education.