Commognitive Conflicts in a Virtual Learning Environment: Exploring the Affordances of Mobile Learning for Discourse Analysis

This paper explores the affordances of mobile learning in developing frameworks for discourse analysis. Specifically, this paper examines the commognitive analysis of classroom discourses in virtual learning environments (VLEs) and how it resolves the challenges of discourse analysis in face-to-face (F2F) settings. With the ongoing social turn of mathematics education research comes the widespread adoption of discourse analysis in educational research. The shift towards virtual learning technologies necessitated by the recent COVID-19 crisis has led to the development of various tools and processes that enable the teaching-learning process to occur in the virtual environment. While the initial drive to adapt these tools has since subsided, the advantages of utilizing them remain apparent. As the teaching-learning process moves into virtual environments, so should research methodologies. As part of a broader study that attempts to develop a framework for characterizing commognitive conflicts and the corresponding teacher actions, this paper presents insights from the initial phases in the framework development process where a virtual learning environment was used to examine the integrity of the discourse analytic framework. This paper will discuss how the framework development benefited from using a virtual learning environment--how it mitigated the challenges of discursive approaches and the unique insights it offers for refining the framework compared to applying the framework directly in face-to-face classroom settings. Results from this work suggest that essential components of the mobile learning experience, such as VLEs, are advantageous to the development of discursive research approaches, such as in the case of developing a framework for identifying commognitive conflicts. [For the full proceedings, see ED659933.]