Mediated action in teachers’ discussions about mathematics tasks

Abstract

This paper presents analyses of teachers’ discussions within mathematics teaching developmental research projects, taking mediation as the central construct. The relations in the so-called ‘didactic triangle’ form the basic framework for the analysis of two episodes in which upper secondary school teachers discuss and prepare tasks for classroom use. The analysis leads to the suggestion that the focus on tasks places an emphasis on the task as object and its resolution as goal; mathematics has the role of a mediating artefact. Subject content in the didactic triangle is thus displaced by the task and learning mathematics may be relegated to a subordinate position.