Mathematics teacher education in a computer-based environment: joint labor using Moodle Quick Chat plugin

In this paper, we report on a study involving third-year undergraduate mathematics students who were taking a course in Mathematics Education. The participants, prospective teachers, discussed typical misconceptions in mathematics. They first worked in Moodle environment communicating in small groups and with the whole class using Quick Chat plugin. They were then engaged in a teacher-mediated oral discussion. The plugin facilitated interactions between participants and allowed the teacher to monitor all conversations in real time. In this study, we analyse this specific practice context by resorting to the notions of joint work and subjectification within the framework of the Theory of Objectification. The results show how the introduction of Quick Chat modifies the classroom activity schema introduced by the Theory of Objectification, intensifying the systemic, fluidity and dynamic aspects typical of joint labor. The plugin is able to foster the emergence of dynamic and fluid activity systems that, in the interaction between online and oral activities, enable new forms of joint labor and the consequent co-positioning of prospective teachers toward mathematics and its teaching and learning. This paper presents a broader approach to teacher education that expands the understanding of professional development usually characterised by subject knowledge and pedagogical content.