Communication and mathematics education

A main result of this project is Dialogue and Learning in Mathematics Education: Intention, Reflection and Critique (Alrø and Skovsmose, 2002), where we address communication in the mathematics classroom. In a series of empirical studies where students operate in landscapes of investigations, we follow the students’ inquiry cooperation as well as the students’ obstructions to such a cooperation. Both phenomena are considered important for the development of a theory of learning mathematics. Special attention is paid to the notions of "dialogues" and "critique". A central idea is that "dialogue" supports "critical learning of mathematics". The link between dialogue and critique is developed further by including the notion of "intention" and "reflection". In this way we try to develop a theory of learning mathematics, which resonates with critical mathematics education.