Teaching challenges in fostering students' discursive shifts to explorative participation in mathematics through remedial interventions: the case of linear equations

Remedial interventions, which are typically provided outside regular school hours to students who are in need of additional support, can play a significant role in improving low-performing students’ mathematical attainment. In this paper, we present excerpts from a technology-based remedial intervention of two students guided by a tutor. The intervention concerned equivalence of algebraic expressions using the ‘balancing’ approach with applets developed in Desmos and GeoGebra. We analyse the pattern of their interactions through the lens of commognition and ‘attractor states’. We conclude by arguing that students’ prior school experiences can challenge the tutor’s attempts to foster shifts to explorative participation to mathematical discourse.