Mathematical explanation: What is it?












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            Mathematical explanation: What is it? 


            Tim Rowland (University of Cambridge, UK, and Norges teknisk-naturvitenskapelige universit


            Some years ago, with colleagues in Cambridge, I developed a framework for identifying and 
            role of mathematics teacher knowledge in the classroom. This framework, the Knowledge Quar
            on a number of things that teachers were seen to do in the course of instruction.  Some ti

            realised that 'explanation' was not explicit in any of the codes that captured these instr
            and actions. Yet Gaea Leinhardt has observed that "Instructional explanations are recogniz

            part of the instructional landscape by teachers, students and observers". In this talk I w
            make sense of the absence of 'explanation' as an explicit component of  the Knowledge Quar
            unpicking what it is that we do when we explain in mathematics classes.