Education Commons^™

Comparing Two Different Student Teaching Structures By Analyzing Conversations Between Student Teachers And Their Cooperating Teachers, Niccole Suzette Franc

Theses and Dissertations

Research has shown that preservice teachers participating in traditional student teaching programs tend to focus on classroom management, with very little focus on student mathematical thinking. The student teaching program at BYU has been redesigned in the hopes of shifting the focus of student teachers away from classroom management toward student mathematical thinking. This study compared conversations between student teachers and cooperating teachers before and after the redesign of the program to work towards determining the effectiveness of the refocusing of the new student teaching program. The study found that STs and CTs in the different student teaching structures were …

Beliefs And Instructional Practices Of Four Community College Remedial Mathematics Instructors, Robin Marie Wucherer

Theses and Dissertations

BELIEFS AND INSTRUCTIONAL PRACTICES OF FOUR COMMUNITY COLLEGE REMEDIAL MATHEMATICS INSTRUCTORS

Robin M. Wucherer

285 Pages August 2011

In an extension of research linking teachers' beliefs about mathematics and their instructional practices at the Prek-12 level, the present study examined and documented both the beliefs and instructional practices of four community college instructors who teach remedial mathematics. Data was collected through survey, observations, interviews, and classroom artifacts. The results of the survey, the Modified Standards Based Belief Instrument (MSBI), showed one-third of 39 community college mathematics instructors had beliefs about mathematics and the teaching and learning of mathematics that …

The Effects Of An Undergraduate Algebra Course On Prospective Middle School Teachers' Understanding Of Functions, Especially Quadratic Functions, Jonathan Taniola Duarte

Theses and Dissertations

Although current reform movements have stressed the importance of developing prospective middle school mathematics teachers' subject matter knowledge and understandings, there is a dearth of research studies with regard to prospective middle school teachers' confidence and knowledge with respect to quadratic functions. This study was intended to fill this void. It generated information on prospective teachers' knowledge of quadratic functions as well as of their confidence to answer questions involving quadratic equations and multiple representations of functions.

The study employed a multiple-perspectives design, with data being collected from different vantage points - documents, pre- and post-teaching tests, artifacts, interviews, classroom …

Exploring The Mathematical Knowledge For Teaching Of Japanese Teachers, Ratu Jared R. T. Bukarau

Theses and Dissertations

In the past two decades there has been an increased effort to understand the depth to which mathematics teachers must know their subject to teach it effectively. Researchers have termed this type of knowledge mathematical knowledge for teaching (MKT). Even though recent studies have focused on MKT, the current literature on the subject indicates that this area remains underdeveloped. In an attempt to further refine our conception of MKT this study looked at MKT in Japan. In this thesis I explored and categorized the MKT of three experienced Japanese cooperating teachers (CTs) by looking at the content of their conversations …

Examining Middle School Students' Statistical Thinking While Working In A Technological Environment, Melissa Arnold Scranton

Theses and Dissertations

Examining Middle School Students' Statistical Thinking

While Working in a Technological Environment

Melissa Arnold Scranton

The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of how students think in a technological environment. This was accomplished by exploring the differences in the thinking of students while they worked in a technological environment and comparing this to their work in a paper and pencil environment. The software program TinkerPlots: Dynamic Data Exploration (Konold & Miller, 2005), a construction tool that middle school students use for data analysis was the technological environment. In both environments, types of critical, creative, and statistical …

Types Of Questions That Comprise A Teacher's Questioning Discourse In A Conceptually-Oriented Classroom, Keilani Stolk

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines teacher questioning with the purpose of identifying what types of mathematical questions are being modeled by the teacher. Teacher questioning is important because it is the major source of mathematical questioning discourse from which students can learn and copy. Teacher mathematical questioning discourse in a conceptually-oriented classroom is important to study because it is helpful to promote student understanding and may be useful for students to adopt in their own mathematical questioning discourse. This study focuses on the types of questions that comprise the mathematical questioning discourse of a university teacher in a conceptually-oriented mathematics classroom for …

Student Understanding Of Limit And Continuity At A Point: A Look Into Four Potentially Problematic Conceptions, Miriam Lynne Amatangelo

Theses and Dissertations

Mathematics students and teachers are familiar with the difficulty of learning and teaching concepts of continuity and limits. Research has expanded our knowledge of how students think about these concepts, including different conceptions and metaphors students use to reason about continuity and limits at a point. From the literature I have identified four potentially problematic conceptions (PPCs) students may use when reasoning about limit and continuity at a point. Questionnaires were administered to 861 BYU students in various mathematics courses to determine how prevalent and persistent the PPCs are among the students in each course. Interviews were conducted with nine …

Determining The Alignment Of Math 105 - Intermediate Algebra At The University Of Wisconsin--Milwaukee To The Goals Of The Common Core State Standards, Raymond Dempsey

Theses and Dissertations

In this analysis we examine the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics and compare them to content presented in Math 105 - Intermediate Algebra at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, in order to determine how well the UW-Milwaukee course develops the skills described in the standards. This is done by examining the structure, textbook content, and assessments of the course. Examining relevant high school standards, we determine that many of the procedural elements of these standards are present in the course while many of the conceptual elements are absent or poorly developed. After, we discuss content that is present in the …

An Analysis Of The Common Core State Standards For Mathematics And The Content Of Math 095: Essentials Of Algebra At The University Of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Hayley Nathan

Theses and Dissertations

In this analysis we present the content in Math 095: Essentials of Algebra at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee that is aligned to the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics. We find that the content in Math 095 is aligned to a small subset of the high school Number and Quantity, Algebra, and Function standards. We present a representative sample of homework and assessment items from the traditional lecture format of Math 095 and compare them to assessment items released by the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium and Illustrative Mathematics. We then discuss content from the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics …

Teaching Algebra Through Functional Programming:An Analysis Of The Bootstrap Curriculum, Robert Lee

Theses and Dissertations

Bootstrap is a computer-programming curriculum that teaches students to program video games using Racket, a functional programming language based on algebraic syntax. This study investigated the relationship between learning to program video games from a Bootstrap course and the resulting effect on students' understanding of algebra. Courses in three different schools, lasting about six weeks each, were studied. Control and treatment groups were given a pre and post algebra assessment. A qualitative component consisting of observations and interviews was also used to further triangulate findings. Statistical analysis revealed that students who completed the Bootstrap course gained a significantly better understanding …

Professional Development As A Community Of Practice And Its Associated Influence On The Induction Of A Beginning Mathematics Teacher, Savannah O. Steele

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study analyzes a professional development course and its associated influence on the induction of a beginning mathematics teacher from a sociocultural perspective. Specifically, it examines whether a specific high school mathematics professional development course formed a community of practice through the elements of mutual engagement, joint enterprise, and shared repertoire. A community of practice is an inherently sociocultural framework. The results show how each element was present in the professional development, indicating that a community of practice had formed. Using those three elements of community of practice, the study further analyzes the induction of one first-year teacher, Sarah, …