In the third meeting in CLS-EE
course, we were given a reading material “Examining Mathematical Discourse
Practice” by Judit Moschkovich (download it here). After reading, we should
make a short reflection about it. Here, I just wanna share my reflection after
reading it. Here it is.
This paper tells me about the
Mathematical Discourse Practice. It is started from giving the case about a
classroom situation as the example of Mathematical Discourse Practice. The
class discussed about the parallelogram and the trapezoid. The students were
asked about “is trapezoid a parallelogram?” and the students were strict to the
answer that the trapezoid is the half of parallelogram. Meanwhile, the teacher
did not want their students wrong concept; he could accept that trapezoid is
the half of parallelogram, but he wanted the students know that the trapezoid
is a parallelogram as well. So, the teacher was strict to his answer too.
From that case and after reading
the paper, I conclude that “the definition” or “the language” can also build
the Discourse practice. The different “language” used is a part of building the
comprehension to achieve the Discourse. In the conversation or discussion, the
different “language” will guide the participants into a-more-specific
conclusion. The brain-storming can affect participants’ thought and finally the
Discourse will be reached.
Referencing
to the paper, mathematical
Discourse practices vary across communities, time, settings, and purposes.
Richard (1991) says that there are four types of Discourse practice depends the
purposes:
1)
Research mathematics of the professional mathematics
and scientist.
I
think this happens among the scientist in term of the result of their research.
2)
Inquiry mathematics as used by mathematically literate
adults.
I think this happens among the adult himself. He
builds the discourse by using the literature provided.
3)
Journal mathematics, emphasizing formal communication,
is the language of mathematical publications and papers.
I think this is similar with the previous one, but
I still don’t know the different.
4)
School mathematics, being the practices typical in
the traditional mathematics classroom.
I think this happen in the classroom as well in
teaching and learning process.
All in all, I conclude that the
Discourse practice is not only happens in the classroom as my first thought,
but it happens in another part of life. Also, it is not only happening when we deal
with people, but also when we deal with the dead-thing such as paper, journal,
and etc.
