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Eric.ed.gov – Much More than It’s Cooked-up to Be: Reflections on Doing Math and Teachers’ Professional Learning

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: The author argues that students’ persistent struggles with mathematics suggest a new form of professional development for teachers is needed. The author draws on a model of professional learning in literacy education to propose an analogous model for mathematics education: teachers of mathematics need to produce mathematical ideas, themselves, in order to better support their students in becoming mathematical thinkers. It is not enough to focus singularly on developing teachers’ content understanding, however, because mathematical ideas are embedded within their representational forms; therefore, any content-related professional development must also include pedagogical discussions. The author concludes by describing a research-based, high-quality professional development community–the Philadelphia Area Math Teachers’ Circle (PAMTC)–in which authentic mathematical inquiry and pedagogical analysis occur hand-in-hand. Link til kilde

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Eric.ed.gov – Innovation in Early Math Education: The Whole Teacher Approach to Professional Development

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: In this presentation, we introduce a conceptual framework for in-service professional development–the Whole Teacher approach, which attends simultaneously to the attitudes, knowledge, and practice of a teacher’s growth. Putting the framework in operation, we describe a project designed to improve teachers’ competence and increase children’s performance in early mathematics. Utilizing a quasi-experimental design, pre- and post-measures with intervention and comparison groups have been collected. The results indicated that significant growth in children’s mathematical performance favored to the intervention group. The discussion focuses on the significance of the Whole Teacher approach to teacher professional development. [For the complete proceedings, see ED584443.] Link til kilde

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Eric.ed.gov – Improving Student Evaluation of Teaching: Determining Multiple Perspectives within a Course for Future Math Educators

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Instructors in higher education are very familiar with the Likert scale Students’ Evaluation of Teaching (SET) used to evaluate teaching. Researchers have raised concerns about biases affecting the results of SET surveys, as well as their validity and reliability and use in high-stakes decision making. Here, we demonstrate that Q methodology, identified as an 80-year-old mixed method, is better suited to determine the differing student views about a college math education course. We will discuss how Q used for SET can produce results that are more helpful in assisting faculty in improving their teaching effectiveness and in redesigning courses while also providing more informative SET results for faculty evaluations. Link til kilde

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Eric.ed.gov – The Tail of a Whale: A Real-World Problem for the Maths Classroom

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Southern Cross University (SCU) educators and local teachers have developed a five-lesson instructional sequence built around fluke identification as a way of resolving the question: How fast do humpback whales travel up the east coast of Australia? Link til kilde

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Eric.ed.gov – Revisiting the Influence of Math Links: Building Learning Communities in Urban Settings

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: It has been a decade since the article “Math Links: Building Learning Communities in Urban Settings” (referenced throughout as Math Links) was published in the inaugural issue of the “Journal of Urban Mathematics Education” (“JUME”; Leonard & Evans, 2008). The Math Links study, as reported in that article, investigated teacher interns’ attitudes and beliefs about their interactions with urban students in a community-based setting. In that article, it was acknowledged that changing teacher attitudes and beliefs can be challenging, but nonetheless accomplished. The goal for the teacher interns was to transform attitudes and beliefs about teaching mathematics to urban students from routine and decontextualized ways to classroom practices in which culturally based and social justice oriented methods framed instruction. Here, we reflect on that work for the… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – End the Math Wars

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: In 1999, Richard Lee Colvin published an article in “The School Administrator” titled “Math Wars: Tradition vs. Real-World Applications” that described the pendulum swing of mathematics education reform. On one side are those who advocate for computational fluency, with a step-by-step emphasis on numbers and skills and the algebra-geometry-trigonometry-calculus sequence. On the other side are those who think students must engage with real-world problems that employ a variety of mathematical disciplines and deep learning of math concepts that comes from struggling with complex problems, comparing multiple solution paths, and learning from trial and error. To understand what it will take to bring the two sides of the mathematics debate together, first consider the approach each side takes to improve student achievement. One side wants to focus mostly… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Math Is Like a Lion Hunting a Sleeping Gazelle: Preservice Elementary Teachers’ Metaphors of Mathematics

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Preservice elementary teachers hold a variety of beliefs about mathematics and mathematics learning, which influence their teaching. Previous research has shown that preservice elementary teachers believe that mathematics is doing arithmetic. However, it is unclear if preservice elementary teachers truly believe that mathematics is only arithmetic, or if they simply have a difficult time describing their views on mathematics. In this study, preservice elementary teachers were asked to provide metaphors for mathematics and mathematics learning in order to illuminate the preservice teachers’ beliefs about mathematics. The metaphors were analyzed to reveal twelve different categories of belief. Approximately one-fourth of the metaphors suggested negative views about mathematics and mathematics learning. Approximately 44% of the metaphors described mathematics and mathematics learning as something that one must engage in as… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Common Core Math in the K-8 Classroom: Results from a National Teacher Survey

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Successful implementation of the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSS-M) should result in noticeable differences in primary and middle school math classrooms across the United States. “Common Core Math in the K-8 Classroom: Results from a National Teacher Survey” takes a close look at how educators are implementing the Common Core math standards in classrooms across the nation. A nationally representative survey of over one thousand teachers reveals that they are increasingly familiar with the Common Core and believe that it will benefit students. Yet findings also point to several areas that warrant mid-course corrections if the standards are going fulfill more rigorous expectations. Takeaways include the following: (1) Teachers like the Common Core but they don’t think all of their students and parents are equally… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – It’s Only Maths: The Potential Impact of a Mentoring Project to Ameliorate Mathematics Anxiety in Teacher Education Students

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: This paper presents initial data from a study being undertaken into the potential effects of a mentoring program for teacher education students who have self-identified as suffering from mathematics anxiety. The first phase of the study saw 8 primary teacher education students opt into a program matching them in pairs with 4 mentor teachers who had been selected by their principals after meeting 6 criteria that identified them as highly capable mentors in mathematics education. The mentees worked with the mentors in classrooms for 8 weeks. After the program the students were interviewed. Data from these students is explored here with particular emphasis on an artefact presented by one of the students about her journey through the process. Link til kilde

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Eric.ed.gov – Evaluation of the Rural Math Excel Partnership Project Final Report

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: This is the final external evaluation report prepared by SRI International for the Rural Math Excel Partnership (RMEP) project, an investing in innovation (i3) development project funded by the U.S. Department of Education. Operated by Virginia Advanced Study Strategies, Inc. (VASS), the RMEP project included six rural school districts (LEAs) in five Virginia counties as partners. The project goal was to develop and implement a model of shared responsibility among families, math teachers, and communities in rural areas to prepare students enrolled in Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II, and Algebra Functions and Data Analysis (AFDA) courses for success in advanced high school and postsecondary STEM studies. The long term outcome was for students to leave school ready, at a minimum, to enroll in postsecondary programs focused on… Continue Reading