The Generative Adolescent Mathematical Learner

The purpose of this paper is to consider the personal epistemologies of generative adolescent mathematical learners. A generative disposition defined a learner who operated mathematically in ways that reflect an internalized authority for knowing and a constructive orientation to knowledge. Drawing upon the radical constructivist teaching experiment methodology, I conducted a qualitative inquiry of students' experiences that may have informed this generative disposition. The subjects of this study relied on their own thinking to come to know, yet demonstrated a need for confirmation from their teachers that they were competent thinkers. A disconnection was observed between classroom behavior and productive qualities of generativity; the subjects rejected schooling in various ways and engaged in deviant classroom behavior.