Exploring the potential of using talk moves with young students when striving towards an equitable mathematics education

Overview & Synopsis

Talk moves (teacher-posed questions that orchestrate discussions) can be understood as an equityfocused endeavour that enables a shift in mathematics discussions from teacher-directed recitation to student-directed reasoning. In this study, talk moves have been explored and adapted to suit young students, which resulted in the addition of one talk move, the exclusion of another, and the expansion of one talk move to include multimodal elements. The findings suggest that talk moves do not necessarily contribute to an equitable early mathematics education unless all students are first given the opportunity to understand the mathematical content being discussed. Thus, a focus on students’ understanding of mathematical content – by using representations and repetitions of students’ solutions – can be viewed as a prerequisite for successful use of talk moves with young students.