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Science and Mathematics Education Commons

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Full-Text Articles in Science and Mathematics Education

Professionalism: What Is It And Are We Teaching For It?, Brian K Tate Dec 2010

Professionalism: What Is It And Are We Teaching For It?, Brian K Tate

Doctoral Dissertations

With rising accountability standards and the need for content specialists within education, the qualifications of mathematics teachers have become increasingly scrutinized. For over three decades, within the parameters of educational reform, the need for the professionalization of teaching has reoccurred (Carnegie Task Force, 1986). When examining the nature of teacher professionalism, no concise definition within the educational community exists (Noddings, 1992). The purpose of this study was to take characteristics defined by the medical and law fields and use them to develop a definition of professionalism within mathematics education. Once a clear set of characteristics was identified, the study then …


Addressing Impulsive Disposition: Using Non-Proportional Problems To Overcome Overgeneralization Of Proportionality, Kien Lim, Osvaldo Morera Jan 2010

Addressing Impulsive Disposition: Using Non-Proportional Problems To Overcome Overgeneralization Of Proportionality, Kien Lim, Osvaldo Morera

Kien H Lim

Impulsive disposition is an undesirable way of thinking where one spontaneously applies the first idea that comes to mind without checking its relevance. In this research, we explore (a) the possibility of helping pre-service teachers improve their disposition, from being impulsive to being analytic, in one semester, and (b) the effect of using non-proportional situations. This study involves two sections of a mathematics course for pre-service teachers for Grades 4-8. The lessons were designed whenever possible to elicit students’ impulsive disposition so that they could become cognizant of it and make conscious attempts to overcome it. Some test items were …


Paper 3: Extending K-8 Mathematics Concepts In Alternate Bases, Dianna J. Spence Jan 2010

Paper 3: Extending K-8 Mathematics Concepts In Alternate Bases, Dianna J. Spence

Georgia Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators (GAMTE) Annual Conference

When learning to represent mathematics with manipulatives, many pre-service K-8 teachers rely on memorized rote procedures to perform the associated mathematical tasks; then they arrange the manipulatives to match their result, often with minimal understanding of underlying mathematical connections. In a Number and Operations course for K-8 pre-service teachers, a portion of the class was conducted in alternate bases: Base 6 and Base 8 Blocks were used to model operations with integers to facilitate deeper understanding of the number systems and arithmetic processes being represented. Fractions and decimals were later covered only in Base 10. On midterm and final exams, …


Paper 5: Embracing The Vision: Our Work With Teachers Implementing Gps, Sarah Ledford, Wendy B. Sanchez, Marian Fox Jan 2010

Paper 5: Embracing The Vision: Our Work With Teachers Implementing Gps, Sarah Ledford, Wendy B. Sanchez, Marian Fox

Georgia Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators (GAMTE) Annual Conference

In 2005, three Kennesaw State University mathematics education faculty members began a series of workshops titled “Implementing the Georgia Performance Standards [GPS]: Embracing the Vision.” This workshop series has been underwritten by Georgia’s Teacher Quality Higher Education Program. The first series of workshops began with 6th grade teachers the first year the GPS was implemented and the project has been funded each subsequent year since its inception. Currently, we are working with Math III teachers as they implement the course for the first time. The initial focus for the project was on conceptual understanding versus procedural understanding, writing tasks that …