Opportunity to communicate: The coordination between focused and discerned aspects of the object of learning

There are extensive concerns pertaining to the idea that students do not develop sufficient communication abilities in algebra and in mathematics more generally. This problem is at least partially related to their algebraic thinking. Although teaching should give students the opportunity to develop their ability to communicate, there are limited research insights as to why some forms of communication work better than others, and how and why instruction influences such communication. Two case studies are reported on in this article. The analysis of the opportunity to communicate was grounded in variation theory. Differences between focused aspects and discerned aspects of the object of learning are described. The results show that the coordination between the aspects focused on by the teacher and discerned by the students provides students with the opportunity to successfully communicate the content in algebra. In addition, the structure of the lesson influences the opportunity to communicate aspects of the content.