Betina Zolkower

Professional Title
Associate Professor
Organization/Institution
Brooklyn College, CUNY
About Me (Bio)
I am a tenured Associate Professor in the School of Education at brooklyn College. My Ph.D. is in Sociology (Graduate Center, CUNY). The focus of my research is the study of whole-class interaction, most specifically, the manner in which experienced middle school teachers conduct conversations that involve the class as a whole. For the study of whole-class interaction 'texts,' I rely upon tools from systemic functional lingustics. My work is also in instructional design, from the perspective of realistic mathematics education (RME). In addition, for the past 10 years I have been co-dorecting a research & PD study group of about 20 teachers in Bariloche, a Southern city in Argentina, which focuses on adapting/adopting RME ideas into the classroom.
Keywords
Mathematics

Examining Teacher Discourse and Whole-class Interaction: A Social Semiotics Model for Mathematics Lesson Study Groups

Brooklyn College, CUNY, Adelphi University
09/01/2008

The project is an exploratory, qualitative case study of a mathematics Lesson Study group for 12 beginning mathematics teachers working in high-poverty middle schools in Brooklyn. The project's Lesson Study model employs social semiotics to examine the intersection between language and learning in mathematics classrooms. Additionally, on-site Lesson Study groups will also be launched in some participating schools.