Primary mathematics teachers' responses to students' offers: An 'elaboration' framework

Responding constructively 'in-the moment' to student offers is described as a critical, and yet difficult, aspect of skilful and responsive teaching. South African evidence points to limited evaluation of student offers in schools serving poor communities. In this paper, we present and discuss an 'elaboration' framework emerging from a grounded analysis of data drawn from video recordings of 18 mathematics lessons prepared and conducted by four in-service primary school teachers in South Africa. This analysis led to a categorization of the situations in which teacher responses to student offers occurred, and the nature and range of these responses. Three response situations are identified within the framework: breakdown, sophistication, and individuation/collectivization, with a range of response (and non-response) categories in each situation. Literature on responsive feedback is drawn in to explore hierarchies and relationships between the emergent categories within situations of elaboration. The elaboration framework provides a tool for lesson observation, and a model for thinking about developments in responsive teaching.