Group work with multimedia in mathematics: contrasting patterns of interaction

This paper outlines the use of the UK National Curriculum Council sponsored multimedia package World of Number with a Year 9 mathematics class. The classroom research was conducted in a South Yorkshire comprehensive school during the Spring term of 1994. The class worked on graphs of relationships between distance, speed and time. The resulting activity is illustrated through examples of the discourse from some of the groups working on the multimedia-based activities. Despite initial impressions of effective collaboration contrasting patterns of interaction are highlighted, with some examples of rich interaction about the problem in several cases but also with examples of much lower levels of engagement with the problem in others.