The purpose of our study was to provide supports that would foster mathematical discourse amongst Grade Four students. As part of an instructional unit on functions and generalizations, we created a common set of views between two classrooms within a Knowledge Forum database. Our goal in connecting the classrooms electronically was to provide an authentic framework that necessitated the occurrence of mathematical discourse and explicit metacognitive conversation. Children became cognizant of the fact that for peers to accept their theories, their problem-solving strategies had to be detailed in their notes. The absence of face-to-face contact intensified the need for well-articulated thoughts.

The participants included 22 grade four students from a small independent school and 16 students from one classroom in a large urban public school. The classes were selected because they use Knowledge Forum as a component of their regular classroom program.

Our presentation will include a thorough tour of the connected database highlighting conversations between individuals that illustrate the development of their conceptual understanding of predictability within growing patterns and their ability to make generalizations. Furthermore, we will use examples from the database to address the social implications of speaking to unknown contributors, an issue which arose throughout our research.