Mathematics Teaching: Toward a More Human View

Working in collaboration with mathematics teachers I have carried out a number of studies in recent years mainly centered on cooperative learning, i.e., a way of managing the teaching-learning process essentially based on learners' resources. In this teaching-learning model, processes of scientific investigation are combined with the development of social skills: The objectives to be reached in the classroom affect not only mathematics learning, but also the social interaction among students involved. In the aggregate, this work (Pesci, 2002) suggests that teachers, in order to be effective, must take into consideration emotions, beliefs, choices, and resources of their students; the social construction of knowledge always involves the whole individual, and it can never be reduced exclusively to the mathematical knowledge of the teacher or student.

Our work in several classes has shown that when teachers meet major obstacles in teaching mathematics, they do well to focus on the relational and social aspects of teaching and learning. Secondary-school teachers, in contrast, attend almost exclusively to the pupils' cognitive evolution regarding the taught discipline, leaving interpersonal relationships aside. Fundamental competencies for effective teachers, I would argue, include knowing how to organize group work and being able to observe and develop students' social skills, including their ability to communicate with and listen to others, to intervene in a discussion without going beyond the limits, to respect and welcome others' resources, and to be able to share common goals. For this reason, we deemed it necessary to engage teachers in experiences and reflections on general themes such as communication, listening, and non-verbal languages. Only by starting with this work, personally crafted and owned by them, is it possible to think about successive classroom follow-up leading toward the improvement of the personal relationships that may emerge and facilitating progress on the educational path.

This article focuses specifically on the project we call "the stage in the classroom," an experience carried out with a group of secondary-school teachers and developed to support the kind of learning described above. The project combined the teachers' disciplinary knowledge of mathematics with a more personal dimension. Its aim was to develop through metaphorical discourse a deep awareness of one's own disciplinary and relationship-related resources as well as a welcoming attitude towards colleagues and pupils. Fundamental to this experience was the contribution of Anna Gallo Selva, who works in an actors' group and who also has developed activities to support learning in educational contexts. We began with two different skill sets: Anna's theater background and my own background as one who works with mathematics education problems. Together we hoped to offer participants a set of strategies that might build a positive attitude toward mathematics on the part of pupils, taking into account their physical and imaginative capacities as well as their individual histories and skills.

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