Studying two teachers teaching the ‘same’ lesson: How to balance programming versus mathematics aspects?

In recent years, teaching of programming to all educational levels has become widespread and it is often connected with mathematics. Under the auspices of a large project in Denmark, we investigate the piloting of a teaching unit in mathematics targeting the use of programming to create a tangram
puzzle. We use a dialogical approach to analyse the teaching of two teachers who volunteered to pilot the unit. The two cases were in stark contrast. The first case focused on dissimilating knowledge of programming and mathematics to students before they needed it and the second focused on engaging
students in exploring programming and mathematics. While there was only a single voice in the first case, that of the teacher, multiple perspectives were invited and valued in the second. The study shows the importance of establishing a material-dialogical space around the use of programming in
mathematics teaching and that opening, widening, and deepening are important teacher moves