A Discourse Analysis of the Online mathmatic courses

英语学习

This article was downloaded by: [Iowa State University]

On: 24 January 2015, At: 11:10

Publisher: Routledge

Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH,

UK

American Journal of Distance

Education

Publication details, including instructions for

authors and subscription information:A Discourse Analysis of the

Online Mathematics Classroom

Kathleen H. Offenholley

aa Borough of Manhattan Community College , City

University of New York

Published online: 29 Nov 2012.

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the

information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform.However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no

representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness,or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views

expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, andare not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of theContent should not be relied upon and should be independently verified withprimary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for anylosses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages,and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly orindirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of theContent.

英语学习

Downloaded by [Iowa State University] at 11:10 24 January 2015

英语学习

TheAmer.Jrnl.ofDistanceEducation,26:236–248,2012

Copyright©Taylor&FrancisGroup,LLC

ISSN0892-3647print/1538-9286online

DOI:

10.1080/08923647.2012.727727

ADiscourseAnalysisoftheOnline

MathematicsClassroom

KathleenH.Offenholley

Downloaded by [Iowa State University] at 11:10 24 January 2015 BoroughofManhattanCommunityCollege,CityUniversityofNewYorkAbstract:ThirteenonlinemathematicsclasseswereanalyzedusingadiscoursecodingsystemcreatedbyBellacketal.(1966).Findingssuggestthattheratioofteacher-to-studentdiscourseisfarlowerinonlinethaninface-to-faceclassesandvarieswidelyfrominstructortoinstructor.Astrongpositivecorrelationwasshownbetweeninstructorpostsandpostsperstudent.Resultspointtothevalueofaparticularkindofinstructorpresenceinanonlineclassandrefutetheideathatmorecollab-orationoccursintheabsenceofaninstructor.Instructorpoststhatwereevaluative(byrating,clarifying,andexpandingwhatwassaid)hadapositivecorrelationwithpostsperstudent,andwhentheinstructor’sevaluationscontainedmoremathemat-ics,sodidthestudent’s.Directanswersfromtheinstructor,ontheotherhand,correlatednegativelywithpostsperstudent.Theidealstyletoencouragestudentposts,collaboration,andengagementwiththematerialseemstobeagentleSocraticquestioning.Fewstudieshaveexaminedwhatitisaboutthefundamentalstructureoflearn-ingonlinethatmakesitsorevolutionaryandappealingforsomeyetsodif?cultforothers.Theauthorcontendsthatbeyondthehypethatonlineclassesarenat-

urallycollaborativeandstudentcentered,studentsneedastrongandspeci?ctypeofinstructordiscussionpresencetobeabletoengagemeaningfullywiththematerialandeachother.Thus,thisresearchwasundertakentoexaminewhattypesandquantityofinstructordiscoursebehaviorsencouragestudentparticipationandinterstudentdiscourse.

CorrespondenceshouldbesenttoKathleenH.Offenholley,BoroughofManhattanCommunityCollege,CityUniversityofNewYork,199ChambersStreet,RoomN-522,NewYork,NY10007.E-mail:koffenholley@bmcc.cuny.edu

英语学习

DISCOURSEANALYSISOFONLINEMATHEMATICS237LITERATUREREVIEW:ENCOURAGINGPARTICIPATIONANDCOLLABORATIONONLINE

Onlinelearninghasoftenbeenconsideredcollaborativebytheveryvirtueofthefactthat,inasynchronous,onlinediscussions,studentstalkmoreandteacherstalkless(e.g.,Swan2003).Butdoesmorestudentresponsibilityauto-maticallymeanthatstudentswillcollaborateandengagewiththematerial?IntheJournalforResearchinMathematicsEducation,Lobato,Clarke,andEllis(2005)contendedthatthepervasivenotionthatconstructivistlearningisthesameasholdingbackfrom“telling”studentsiserroneous.Theyaf?rmedtheroleoftheteacherwithincollaborativelearningandsawseveralimpor-tantfunctionsofinstructordiscourse,includingsummarizingstudentwork,providingnewinformation,askingaboutstrategies,andengaginginSocraticquestioning.Althoughtheauthorswerewritingaboutface-to-faceclasses,theresearchinonlinelearningtellsasimilarstory.GerryStahl,whohasstudiedcomputer-supportedcollaborativelearningextensively,wrotewithcolleagues,“Theteachermustmotivateandguideeachstudent,throughon-goinginter-actionandasenseofsocialpresence”(Stahl,Koschmann,andSuthers2006,410).GarrisonandCleveland-Innes(2005)studiedseventy-?vegraduatestu-dentsinfouronlineclassesthathaddifferentlevelsofinstructorinteraction.Theyfoundthatwhenateachersteppedinwithgreatersocialpresence,thestudentsadopteddeeperapproachestolearning.ThisresultisinlinewithwhatHenriques(1997,21)termedthe“interactive-constructivistperspective.”

AstudybyYang,Newby,andBill(2005)foundthatwhenonlineinstruc-torsused“Socraticquestioning”(probingquestionsthataskedthestudentstoexplainmore),criticalthinkingincreased,andthisimprovementpersistedevenwhentheinstructorstoppedinthesecondhalfofthesemester.Incon-trast,Angeli,Valanides,andBonk(2003)observedanonlinediscussioninwhich“49%ofstudents’discoursewasunsupportedadviceandpersonalopin-ions”(1).Theauthorsattributedtheseresultstoalackofqualityfacilitation.FahyandAlly(2005)discoveredthat“whentheinstructorprovidedconsider-ablescaffolding(approximatelyone-fourthofhisposts),studentsusedmorere?ections”(10).

Thereisalsoevidencethatstudentsthinkmoredeeplywhentheyinter-actmore.Schrire(2004)foundthathigher-orderthinkingoccurredmorewhentherewassynergisticinteraction,thatis,wherepostswereconnectedtomanyothers,asopposedtopoststhatmostlyaddressedtheinstructor,oneotherstudent,orasmallgroup.Similarly,Swan(2003)analyzedmanystudiesofonlinelearningandfoundacorrelationbetweenperceivedstudentlearningandinteractionwithinstructorsandotherstudents.

Ameta-analysisofonlinelearning(Bernardetal.2004)hasfoundthatstudent-to-instructorinteractionisnotaseffectiveasstudent–studentorstudent–contentinteraction.Yetitisthecontentionofthisauthorthatwithoutacertaintypeofinstructorinteraction,itmaybethatneitherwilloccur.Downloaded by [Iowa State University] at 11:10 24 January 2015

英语学习

238OFFENHOLLEYMETHOD

Thirteenonlinemathematicsclasseswereobserved,involvingsevendifferentinstructors,197students,andatotalof4,070instructorandstudentposts.Theclassesconsistedofliberalartsmath,statistics,andcollegealgebra,alltypi-calcoursesfor?rst-andsecond-yearstudents.Instructorswithmorethantwoyears’experienceinonlineteachingwerechosensothatthediscoursepat-ternswouldbelesslikelytobeconfoundedbyalackofunderstandingofthebasicsofonlineteaching.Althoughthesampleofinstructorsandcourseswasnotrandom,therangeofinstructorswasneverthelessbroadenoughtogivea“snapshot”ofsomeofthetypesofdiscoursepossibleinonlineclasses.ThreeoftheinstructorswerefromDeVryUniversity,afor-pro?tinstitution;therestwerefrompubliccommunitycolleges;twoclassesweretaughtbytheauthor.

EachclasswassimilarinstructuretowhatPalloffandPratt(2001)describedasatypicalonlineclass.Studentsweretoldtoreadtheonlinemate-rialsandthetextbookandtodoassignedhomeworkquestions.Lectureshadminimalinteraction.Someclassestookadvantageofinteractivetutorialexer-cisesandhomeworkfromthetextbookpublisherorhadshortmultiple-choicequizzesthatthestudentscouldtaketohelpcheckunderstanding.Eachclassincludedanasynchronousdiscussionboard.

Postsineachclass’sdiscussionboardwererandomlychosenfromthemiddlethirdofthesemester,anonymized,andcodedmanually.Themiddlethirdofthesemesterwaschosenbecausestudentswouldbeusedtothewayonlinepostingworkedatthatpointbuthopefullynotyethavedroppedtheclassorstoppedpostingasmuch.Randomthreadswerechosensothatawhole“conversation”couldbeobserved.Intheinterestofminimizingresearcherbias,severalcoderswereengagedandinterraterreliabilitywastested;theresearcherdidnotdoanyofthecoding.

ThecodingsystemusedwasbasedonBellacketal.’s(1966)groundbreak-ingworkondiscourseanalysis.Bellackandhiscolleaguesappliedtheirmodelto?fteenhighschooleconomicsclasses,andFey(1970)continuedtheworkofBellacketal.inobservationsofjuniorhighschoolmathematicsclasses.Otherdiscoursecodingsystemswereavailable(e.g.,Schrire2004),butusingasystemthathadbeenusedinface-to-facemathematicsclassesallowedthisresearchertocompareonlinemathematicsclassdiscoursewithface-to-faceclasses.Inaddition,thesystemwassimilartooneusedwithsomesuccessonlinebyFahy,Crawford,andAlly(2001)andfurtherdescribedinFahyandAlly(2005).

Codes

Thecodingsystemusedinthisresearchwasasfollows:

●Downloaded by [Iowa State University] at 11:10 24 January 2015 AcodeofSOLwasusedtodesignateasolicitingpost.Thistypeofpostwasdesignedtoelicitinformationoraction—aquestionorcommandto