Education Commons^™

What Pre-Service Teachers Want “Math” To Know: Examining Self-Identified Relationships And Critical Experiences With Mathematics, Claudia M. Bertolone-Smith, Alison Puliatte, Samantha Sommers, Michelle Unigarro, Danielle Vantassell

Excelsior: Leadership in Teaching and Learning

This study examines the self-reported critical experiences that undergraduate pre-service teachers (PSTs) choose to share when writing a letter directly to “Math” and creating a self-portrait of a math learning experience. The letters sought to initiate a personification of math and the self-portraits to further explore math learning experiences of the PSTs. The letters and portraits were examined to understand the types of math relationships and critical events PSTs reported and their impact on PST identity and agency as a future teacher. Portraits were analyzed by PST research partners. The relationship between the categories of critical events and mindset …

Trends Of Mathematics Education Research Studies Published In Journal Of Mathematics Education From 2017 To 2021, Hisham Barakat Hussein Prof.

International Journal for Research in Education

The study aimed to analyze the trends of mathematics education research published in the Journal of Mathematics Education in the last five years and to propose a future map for mathematics education research in the light of the analysis results, professors’ and experts’ views, and the contemporary international trends. The study used a simplified model to classify research in seven domains. Also, the researcher used a questionnaire for professors and experts to determine a future map for mathematics education research. The results showed the research trends in the Journal of Mathematics Education were most of the articles were single authored …

Full Issue: Journal On Empowering Teaching Excellence, Volume 6, Issue 1, Spring 2022

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

The full-length 2022 Special Issue (Volume 5, Issue 3) of the Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

Access the online Pressbooks version (with downloadable EPUB format) here.

The Spring 2022 issue begins with research that explores the perceptions of pre-service teachers relative to learning mathematics and science, with suggestions for how findings can impact curriculum and further research. The focus on pre-service teachers continues with research into their sense of self-efficacy with instructional technologies and whether specific techniques increase comfort level with technologies. Next, researchers explore the products that Generation Z students value most in their learning of a second language, …

The Impact Of Personal And Service-Related Factors On The Perceived Academic Success Among College Students, Ronnie Davis, Geraldine Doucet, Terayana Lamb, Sonya Sneed, David Fletcher

The Journal of the Research Association of Minority Professors

In recent years, student completion of the first year and second-year college curriculum has become a significant barrier to student success and retention especially at Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Despite low pass and retention rates, many degree programs in the U.S. require at least one college-level mathematics course, and the failure in this math course has contributed disproportionately to the failure to complete the first- and second-year curriculum.

The purpose of this study was to examine the predictability of the relationship between selected personal, academic, and service-related factors and the perceived academic success in mathematics among college students. Specifically, …

The Effect Of Using Blackboard In The Light Of Daniel’S Model On Teaching Mathematica Program And Developing Science Processes, Reasoning Ability, And Academic Achievement, Samia Hussien Goda

International Journal for Research in Education

The purpose of this study was to explore the effect of using blended virtual classrooms in Blackboard in the light of Daniel’s model on teaching Mathematica program and developing the science processes, reasoning ability and academic achievement. The participants comprised 50 female students at Mathematics department, University of Tabuk. The researcher designed the two assessment tools, namely science processes test and reasoning ability test. Then the researcher taught the instructional content by using virtual classrooms blended learning in Blackboard in the light of Daniel’s model, in accordance with the teacher’s manual guide. Then, the researcher applied post-testing on the experimental …

Women Leaders In Mathematics Education: An Analysis Of Gender In Leadership Roles In Professional Organizations, Brianna Kurtz, Farshid Safi

Journal of Educational Leadership in Action

Professional organizations within mathematics education have been a source of development, connection, pedagogical direction, and policy for decades. With gender and equity discussions reaching the forefront of the mathematics education conversation, one must consider the gender representation of those leading the organizations upon which we rely. The authors analyzed historical presidential data from four major mathematics education professional organizations in the United States. Women were found to be in presidential roles at a statistically significantly less proportion (p<0.001) in three of the four organizations. When the organizations were considered aggregately since the enactment of Title IX, a trend to a plateau at 40% female leadership was seen. Future analysis beyond the presidential role and breakdowns by other factors are advisable.

Mathematics Out Of Nothing: Talking About Powerful Mathematical Ideas With Children, Matthew Oldridge

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

Parents and educators have powerful opportunities to introduce children to big mathematical ideas, when those ideas become necessary. Children are capable and curious. They don’t need to be sheltered from big mathematical ideas. Bring out mathematical ideas when kids are ready, or when they are needed. This article describes one such instance, when I helped my six-year-old son move beyond zero in the negative direction when subtracting.

Critical Mathematical Inquiry

Occasional Paper Series

Welcome to Issue 41 of Bank Street’s Occasional Paper Series. The issue features a collection of papers by authors with a shared affinity for the work of critical mathematical inquiry (CMI). In what follows, we present our framing of mathematics education as a participatory venue for CMI and situate it in the context of another, perhaps more familiar approach to teaching mathematics for social justice (TMfSJ).

The “Soft Bigotry Of Low Expectations” And Its Role In Maintaining White Supremacy Through Mathematics Education, Laurie Rubel, Andrea V. Mccloskey

Occasional Paper Series

In this study, we offer an analysis of the phrase the "soft bigotry of low expectations" and considers its role in rhetoric about U.S. mathematics education policy and practice, especially in regards to Critical Mathematical Inquiry. From the phrase’s origins in a speech given by President George W. Bush in 2000, to its current use on social media, this phrase offers a lens into white supremacy and "tools of whiteness" (Picower, 2009), and their persistence in U.S. schooling paradigms, especially about mathematics. We analyze specific, recent instantiations of the phrase on blogrolls and Twitter, in addition to more implicit …

Collaboration And Critical Mathematical Inquiry: Negotiating Mathematics Engagement, Identity, And Agency, Frances K. Harper

Occasional Paper Series

When faced with the challenge of supporting students to do the “messy” mathematical work necessary for exploring social justice problems through critical mathematical inquiry, teachers might rely on more procedural or direct instruction. Because how students learn matters as much as what they learn, this can inadvertently limit students’ engagement with mathematics. Instructional strategies designed to foster equitable collaboration can support critical mathematical inquiry by promoting norms for equitable student engagement and mathematics identity development. As teachers and students negotiate what counts as mathematics engagement and who has access to mathematics, students’ authority over mathematics and social justice issues increases.

Cultivating A Space For Critical Mathematical Inquiry Through Knowledge-Eliciting Mathematical Activity, Debasmita Basu, Steven Greenstein

Occasional Paper Series

Learning mathematics becomes more effective when teachers leverage their students' mathematical and everyday knowledge as resources for instruction. Thus, tasks that reveal these forms of knowledge would be especially useful to teachers. Unfortunately, such tasks are hard to find and even harder to create. Consequently, we developed a collection of mathematical tasks that we hoped would elicit “children’s multiple mathematical knowledge bases (i.e., the understandings and experiences that have the potential to shape and support children’s mathematics learning—including children’s mathematical thinking, and children’s cultural, home, and community-based knowledge)” (Turner et al., 2012, p. 68). These tasks proved to be productive …

Disciplinary Learning From An Authentic Engineering Context, Catherine Langman, Judith Zawojewski, Patricia Mcnicholas, Ali Cinar, Eric Brey, Mustafa Bilgic, Hamidreza Mehdizadeh

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

This small-scale design study describes disciplinary learning in mathematical modeling and science from an authentic engineeringthemed module. Current research in tissue engineering served as source material for the module, including science content for readings and a mathematical modeling activity in which students work in small teams to design a model in response to a problem from a client. The design of the module was guided by well-established principles of model-eliciting activities (a special class of problem-solving activities deeply studied in mathematics education) and recently published implementation design principles, which emphasize the portability of model-eliciting activities to many classroom settings.

Two …

Learning Outcome Literacy: The Case Of Five Elementary Mathematics Teachers, Dilsad Güven Akdeni̇z, Ziya Argün

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

: Learning outcome (LO) literacy is conceptualized as a necessary skill for planning teaching and learning activities effectively. The skill has two main components: understanding and interpreting learning outcomes. The current study aimed to identify learning outcome literacy of elementary mathematics teachers with regard to this conceptualization. It is a case study based on the qualitative design. Participants were 5 mathematics teachers working at different elementary (5^th - 8^th grade) schools in Turkey. Observations and semi-structured interviews were used for data collection based on 10 learning outcomes selected from algebra and number learning domains in local mathematics curriculum. …

Developing Teacher Competencies For Problem-Based Learning Pedagogy And For Supporting Learning In Language-Minority Students, Peter Rillero, Mari Koerner, Margarita Jimenez-Silva, Joi Merritt, Wendy J. Farr

Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-Based Learning

Teachers need to be able to design and implement problem-based learning (PBL) experiences to help students master the content and the processes in new mathematics and science education standards. Due to the changed population of learners within schools, it is also critically important that teachers in the elementary grades have the abilities to work effectively with English language learners (ELL). This article discusses the implementation of a major initiative by our teachers college to achieve both of these goals through Problem-Based Enhanced Language Learning (PBELL), which combines PBL, enhanced opportunities for language, and ELL methods. The implementation began with a …

"Returning To The Root" Of The Problem: Improving The Social Condition Of African Americans Through Science And Mathematics Education, Vanessa R. Pitts Bannister, Julius Davis, Jomo Mutegi, Latasha Thompson, Deborah Lewis

Catalyst: A Social Justice Forum

The underachievement and underrepresentation of African Americans in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) disciplines have been well documented. Efforts to improve the STEM education of African Americans continue to focus on relationships between teaching and learning and factors such as culture, race, power, class, learning preferences, cultural styles and language. Although this body of literature is deemed valuable, it fails to help STEM teacher educators and teachers critically assess other important factors such as pedagogy and curriculum. In this article, the authors argue that both pedagogy and curriculum should be centered on the social condition of African Americans – …

Working Together: A Caring Relation Between A Teacher And A Mathematics Educator, Elizabeth Suazo Flores

Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement

Using Noddings’s (1984) caring theory, Elizabeth Suazo Flores—a third-year PhD student in mathematics education—describes how a caring relationship developed between her and an eighth grade mathematics teacher, Lisa. Noddings’s (1984) caring theory provided insights into their community-based experience, which was characterized by trust and open-mindedness.

The Role Of Sequence In The Experience Of Mathematical Beauty, Leslie Dietiker

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

In this article, I analyze the aesthetic dimensions of a sequence of mathematical events found in an unusual first grade lesson in order to demonstrate how sequencing may affect an individual’s experience of mathematical beauty. By approaching aesthetic as a sense or felt quality of an experience in context (Sinclair, 2001, 2011), this analysis explains how sequence can affect the way mathematical objects or actions are experienced by an individual. Thus, rather than questioning whether or in what ways a set of mathematical objects are beautiful or not, this paper addresses under what conditions is the mathematics in play beautiful. …

Mathematics For What? High School Students Reflect On Mathematics As A Tool For Social Inquiry, Anastasia Brelias

Democracy and Education

This study examines high school students’ views of mathematics as a tool for social inquiry in light of their classroom experiences using mathematics to explore social issues. A critical theoretical perspective on mathematics literacy is used to ascertain the ways in which their views challenge or affirm the dominant image of mathematics in society. The study concludes that mathematics applications addressing social justice issues are promising vehicles for developing students’ appreciation of mathematics as a social problem-solving tool, an awareness of its limitations, and a healthy skepticism toward its uses.

Parts Of The Whole: When Variation Is The Goal, Dorothy Wallace

Numeracy

The goals of higher education are a population of extreme variability in expertise, a diffusion of specialized knowledge across disciplinary boundaries, and production of strong K-12 teachers. Promoting these three goals has implications at all granularities, from the pedagogy of an individual college professor to the incentives and policies that shape systemic change.