Participation in mathematics problem-solving through gestures and narration

Recent results in neuroscience and communication bring to the fore the role of multimodal resources in cognitive and communicative processes. On the other hand, Bruner highlights the different role of narrative and logical thinking in human understanding. In this background, we investigate the teaching and learning processes when children are introduced to the mathematical meanings by the use of narrative context and multimodality. In this paper, we focus on a narratively-based problem-solving activity in the first year of primary school. We analyse the teacher-students multimodal interaction and discuss the potential and limits of what we call the “semiotic game” between teacher and students. The importance of the teacher being conscious of the multimodal aspects of teaching and learning mathematics, and of the complexity of narratively-based contexts comes to the fore.