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Full-Text Articles in Teacher Education and Professional Development
Using Solution Strategies To Examine And Promote High School Students’ Understanding Of Exponential Functions: One Teacher’S Attempt, Jonathan L. Brendefur, Kim Bunning, Walter G. Secada
Using Solution Strategies To Examine And Promote High School Students’ Understanding Of Exponential Functions: One Teacher’S Attempt, Jonathan L. Brendefur, Kim Bunning, Walter G. Secada
Curriculum, Instruction, and Foundational Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations
Much research has been conducted on how elementary students develop mathematical understanding and subsequently how teachers might use this information. This article builds on this type of work by investigating how one high-school algebra teacher designs and conducts a lesson on exponential functions. Through a lesson study format she studies with her colleagues how other algebra students have mathematically modeled a bacteria growth problem with no prior formal instruction. Analysis revealed that the teacher was able to use students’ algebraic thinking to structure her class and begin promoting mathematical understanding. The implications for building on students’ conceptions of algebra are …
Instructional Learning Teams: A Case Study, Jonathan L. Brendefur, Brian Whitney, Roger A. Stewart, Joshua Pfiester, Julia Zarbnisky
Instructional Learning Teams: A Case Study, Jonathan L. Brendefur, Brian Whitney, Roger A. Stewart, Joshua Pfiester, Julia Zarbnisky
Curriculum, Instruction, and Foundational Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations
Changing teacher practices to improve student learning is a challenge. For teachers’ practices to change, faculties within schools must build communities of practice. However, supporting teachers’ collaborative learning within a Professional Learning Team can be an elusive challenge. We found through the Instructional Learning Team (ILT) model of professional development that teachers have a focused model to make effective changes to their practice. ILTs promote school improvement by providing a process through which teachers collaboratively focus on sustained reflection about student learning tasks, instruction, and student work using the Japanese Lesson Study and critiquing their work using Newmann’s (1996) Intellectual …