Teacher Learning in a Community of Practice: A Case Study of ...

at her maths books to which the teacher replied that they could only do that after five
minutes.
There was a buzz of activity from all quarters of the class. The noise levels began to rise
considerably (louder than I've heard in any other lesson I've observed). The teacher seemed
undisturbed by it. (I found this quite remarkable, as my experience at this school thus far
had been that teachers were quite strict about high noise levels especially in their
presence). As I looked around, I saw many children attempting their graphs. Some pupils
were not prepared to risk their first attempts on the blank graph paper that the teacher
had given to them but preferred to draw up their own for a first attempt. A few pupils
simply sat and stared at their worksheet, wondering what was going on, anxious at not
knowing where to start from/ what to do. After about five minutes, the teacher received a
reminder from several pupils that five minutes were up and wanted to look at their maths
books. The teacher allowed this, and said that he was going to give them another five
minutes and that they really had to try their best, again signalling that it was okay to make
a mistake - but he wanted them to at least try out the graph. He moved around the class,
looking at pupils' work, but not offering comments or assistance from the now almost
pleading pupils. He smiled and nodded approvingly at some of the attempts.
After about five minutes John called the pupils to attention. There was much quiet moaning
amongst the pupils. He explained that sometimes it was good for them to work out things
for themselves and mentioned that he had seen some interesting graphs as he walked
around. He then drew a blank graph on the board (X and Vaxes) and began by asking pupils
where point zero would appear on the graph. All pupils appeared to agree that it was at the
point where the axes met. He asked pupils if they could remember what the vertical axis
was called, explaining and indicating which one was the vertical axis. He did the same for the
horizontal axis thus establishing X and V-axes.
He then referred to the demand schedule pointing to the fact that the table had two
columns and that each column could be represented on a separate axis. He explained that to
draw the graph for Jay's demand for coke, the V-axis would be used for 'price' (P) and the
X-axis for quantity (Q) and proceeded to label the 'axes' price and 'quantity'. He proceeded
to calibrate the vertical axis in multiples of R2 from zero to RlO, and the X-axis in multiples
of two going up to twenty. By then, many pupils had stopped looking at the board and were
busy studying their own graphs.
John wanted to proceed, but could sense a quiet buzz (pupils whispering to each other about
their graphs). At this point the teacher stopped his explanation and asked whether the
class wanted to proceed on their own. Several pupils eagerly wanted to try it on their own,
while some did not. A few did not respond but looked around at other pupils and the
teacher. He looked around and at his watch and decided to allow pupils to proceed to plot
the graph on their own. Again there was some protesting from some pupils who appeared
uncertain. John walked around and helped individuals.
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