From mistakes, we learn: teachers' positional framing toward errors in mathematical classrooms

Abstract

The productive status of errors is discussed in Mexico and the US mathematics education reforms. However, teachers’ positionings toward mistakes may or may not converge with this productive status. For that reason, reflecting on teachers’ positioning during the teaching and learning process is crucial (Stooksberry et al., 2009). This study examines teachers’ positional framing during teacher and students’ moment-to-moment interaction in the context of errors occurring in the classroom. Findings reveled two opposite error frames that teachers used to address errors in their classrooms. One of these frames provided student support for using errors as tools for their learning. On the contrary, the other provided an idea of student incapacity to cope with errors.