Developing dialogic mathematics teaching with tablet technology in Chinese primary school classrooms: A design-based research approach to teacher professional development
type: CreativeWork
description: Accumulating evidence has shown the benefit of productive classroom dialogue for students’ learning achievement, higher-order thinking and conceptual understanding in school mathematics. However, eliciting high-quality classroom dialogue is challenging for teachers. Issues of teacher domination and limited, inequitable and passive student participation are frequently reported in Chinese mathematics classrooms. Recently, the potential of digital technology to foster classroom dialogue has been the focus of a growing body of research. One of the key claims is the need to support teachers and develop their pedagogical approaches. Thus, this study adopted a design-based research (DBR) approach to iteratively develop a teacher professional development (TPD) programme that integrated and adapted a lesson study model. Additionally, the study aimed to: (1) investigate changes in teachers’ understandings and practices of dialogic teaching with tablet technology; and (2) explore pedagogical strategies for supporting students’ active participation in dialogue while using online interactive platforms on tablets. This one-year DBR study was conducted in two Chinese primary schools with seven mathematics teachers. The study included a pre-intervention assessment, two iterations of TPD based on parallel lesson study and a post-intervention assessment of teacher change. Data were mainly collected from individual teachers' baseline questionnaires, semi-structured teacher interviews and 27 lesson observations. Thematic analysis was employed to analyse the data collected from the interviews and open-ended questionnaire questions. The data concerning classroom dialogue were analysed at the lesson, episode and turn levels using a slightly adapted version of the T-SEDA coding scheme and an adaptation of the episode-level ‘Student Participation Rating Scale’. The study found that the teachers developed multi-dimensional understandings of classroom dialogue and dialogic teaching, associate…
abstract: Accumulating evidence has shown the benefit of productive classroom dialogue for students’ learning achievement, higher-order thinking and conceptual understanding in school mathematics. However, eliciting high-quality classroom dialogue is challenging for teachers. Issues of teacher domination and limited, inequitable and passive student participation are frequently reported in Chinese mathematics classrooms. Recently, the potential of digital technology to foster classroom dialogue has been the focus of a growing body of research. One of the key claims is the need to support teachers and develop their pedagogical approaches. Thus, this study adopted a design-based research (DBR) approach to iteratively develop a teacher professional development (TPD) programme that integrated and adapted a lesson study model. Additionally, the study aimed to: (1) investigate changes in teachers’ understandings and practices of dialogic teaching with tablet technology; and (2) explore pedagogical strategies for supporting students’ active participation in dialogue while using online interactive platforms on tablets. This one-year DBR study was conducted in two Chinese primary schools with seven mathematics teachers. The study included a pre-intervention assessment, two iterations of TPD based on parallel lesson study and a post-intervention assessment of teacher change. Data were mainly collected from individual teachers' baseline questionnaires, semi-structured teacher interviews and 27 lesson observations. Thematic analysis was employed to analyse the data collected from the interviews and open-ended questionnaire questions. The data concerning classroom dialogue were analysed at the lesson, episode and turn levels using a slightly adapted version of the T-SEDA coding scheme and an adaptation of the episode-level ‘Student Participation Rating Scale’. The study found that the teachers developed multi-dimensional understandings of classroom dialogue and dialogic teaching, associate…
author: Liu, Qian
language: eng
keywords: Dialogic teaching, Technology-mediated dialogue, Teacher professional development, Design-based research, Lesson study
license: https://www.rioxx.net/licenses/all-rights-reserved/
date published: 2022-08-01
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:23:54Z
provider: Cambridge University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Cambridge

PropertyValue
property ID: DOI
value: 10.17863/CAM.92982