Reflection: Group flow in small groups of middle school mathematics students

For this week reading, Armstrong’s Master thesis was focused on examining group flow in the middle school mathematics classroom settings. As a school teacher, this topic resinates very well with her own background and work experience.  Using video and audio taping, Armstrong observed how group flow occurred and identified the conditions required to promote a collective learning experience for students.

Surprises:
While reading this thesis, I noticed that the tone of the paper was mainly written in the first-person narrative which is something I did not expect. In today’s academic world, it seems that there is a strong preference towards quantitative research and using third-person narrative writing style. In addition, the author explained in details why she was interested in this specific topic and illustrated how her research interests were related to her working experience as a math teacher. As a reader, I feel more connected with her stories and her research motivation using first-person style.

In this study, Armstrong also included photos, charts of transcripts as well as attached audio clips in the result section. I did not listen to the audio clips but the visual elements such as the photos and the charts were helpful in visualizing how the study was conducted.

Three things to take away:
1. The structure of this thesis is well organized with content being dividend into different sections. Personally, I appreciate how clear the structure was and I think it will definitely help the readers to follow through contents. For my own thesis writing, I would also have my thesis structured or organized in a way which will be easier for readers to follow.
2. Don’t be afraid of using first-person narrative. Through this paper, I witness the effectiveness of using first-person narrative in connecting with the readers. In my thesis writing, I would use first-person narrative style to introduce my research and how I become interested in the topic.
3. The importance of literature review: A significant portion of this paper was on literature review where the author discussed various conceptual frameworks and the existing research work.

Comments

  1. Unknown4 March 2018 at 09:45

    Hui,

    It sounds like this was an intriguing read. During my B.Ed at UBC, Alayne Armstrong was my professor for a class on teaching math in Middle Years. She revolutionized the way I thought of math education as a whole, and was instrumental in helping me develop an engaging and arts-based unit plan to teach during my practicum. I appreciate that first person narrative was used in writing, and I'm sensing a connection between the readings of this week and our speaker from class last week. It seems that a move away from strictly 'academic' third-person writing may afford some the creative license to express ideas and connect with readers in a different way. There is a freedom in allowing the story, research and findings to dictate the style of writing that will be communicate the ideas, rather than feel as though the ideas must conform to the style. It's interesting that a literature review and conceptual frameworks were discussed at length as well. I noticed that also and began to wonder about what frameworks I might use for my own research paper. In all honesty, I'm still trying to wrap my head around them-- have you investigated any conceptual frameworks for your research?

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  2. Susan Gerofsky4 March 2018 at 22:12

    Thanks, Hui and Sarah! Sarah, I'm so glad to hear that you had a class with Alayne, and that it was an inspiring one! It's interesting that the question of first person/ third person is still an important point of discussion in considering how to write a thesis, as it has been for at least the past thirty years

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  3. Jingyu5 March 2018 at 18:57

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  4. Jingyu5 March 2018 at 18:58

    Hi Hui. The point you made about writing in first person is very interesting, and it's also something I can relate to. My previous thesis supervisor is a big advocate of third-person narrative and required all his students to write in that way because it sounds more professional and objective. I'm glad to find someone still writes in first person that gives academic research a personal touch.

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