Multimodal Analysis of Videos based on the Theory of Objectification: contributions to research on mathematics teacher education

Abstract

This paper aims to present and discuss the methodological contributions of Objectification Theory to multimodal analysis of videos in research on mathematics teachers training. In the first part, drawing on cultural-historical theoretical foundations and the Theory of Objectification and their implications for research, the use of videos is presented as a methodological strategy for capturing and analyzing data consistent with an understanding of learning as an embodied and material process of occurring in collective sensible human activity. In the second part, examples of this type of analysis are presented and discussed in research data developed by the authors about the development of teachers' algebraic thinking. It is concluded that multimodal analysis that the multimodal analyses involving images, oral and written records, gestures, etc. proposed by the TO, analyses in which different semiotic resources are investigated as a dialectical whole, offers a way to better understand the formative processes of teachers. By supporting the detailed analysis of the elements that impact the teachers' learning, it becomes evident how the awareness of the mathematical meaning at stake is developing in a process that, in turn, surpasses each independently analyzed record. The transposition of TO methodology to the training of teachers who teach mathematics is unprecedented, since this theory has been used to understand student learning in class. In the field of teacher education there is still much potential to be explored about the methodological approach based on TO, which justifies the relevance of the discussion and proposal of video analysis presented in this text.