Teaching Mathematics for Conceptual Understanding: Teachers’ Beliefs and Practices and the Role of Constraints

2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 234-247 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bilge Yurekli ◽  
Mary Kay Stein ◽  
Richard Correnti ◽  
Zahid Kisa
Keyword(s):  
Instructional Practices ◽  
Conceptual Understanding ◽  
Major Influence ◽  
Teaching Mathematics ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
Teachers Beliefs ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Development Of Students

A major influence on mathematics teachers’ instruction is their beliefs. However, teachers’ instructional practices do not always neatly align with their beliefs because of factors perceived as constraints. The purpose of this article is to introduce a new approach for examining the relationship between teachers’ beliefs and practices, an approach that focuses on specific instructional practices that support the development of students’ conceptual understanding and on mismatches that occur between what teachers believe to be important and what they report actually doing in the classroom. We also examine the relationship between teachers’ self-reported constraints and mismatches between teachers’ beliefs and practices.

scholarly journals Nudge/sludge symmetry: on the relationship between nudge and sludge and the resulting ontological, normative and transparency implications

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
STUART MILLS
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Understanding ◽  
Clear Definition ◽  
Complete Understanding ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Choice Architect ◽  
Policy Interventions ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
New Framework

Abstract A recent development within nudge theory is the concept of sludge, which imposes frictions on decision-making. Nascent literature adopts a normative interpretation of sludge: nudge good, sludge bad. However, this normative interpretation leaves much to be desired. A clear definition and treatment of sludge remains absent from this literature, as is a complete understanding of ‘frictions’. Furthermore, the relationship between nudges and sludges is unclear. This paper proposes the concept of nudge/sludge symmetry in an attempt to advance the conceptual understanding of sludge. Building from the definition of a nudge, three types of friction permissible under nudge theory are identified: hedonic, social and obscurant. Sludge is then positioned, in terms of frictions, relative to nudge: nudges decrease relative frictions, sludges increase relative frictions. A consequence of this proposition is nudge/sludge symmetry – where a nudge decreases the frictions associated with a specific option, sludge is simultaneously imposed on all other options available to a decision-maker. Nudge/sludge symmetry subsequently challenges the normative interpretation of sludge, and so a new framework drawing on the literature on nudges in the private sector is offered, with the choice architect placed at the centre. This new approach to sludge and emphasis on the role of the choice architect, in turn, reaffirms the importance of transparency in public policy interventions.

scholarly journals New Ways in the Cognitive Dimension of Information Operations

2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 94-102
Author(s):  
Zsolt Haig ◽  
Veronika Hajdu
Keyword(s):  
Technological Progress ◽  
Cognitive Dimension ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Special Regard ◽  
Information Operations ◽  
Psychological Operations ◽  
The Military ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Tools And Methods

Abstract In this paper the authors introduce the cognitive dimension that is becoming more and more important in the field of information operations with special regard to psychological operations (PSYOPS). The strengthening role of influencing skills and technological progress has created new avenues and opportunities in the military field. The paper seeks to point out the relationship between marketing and PSYOPS. In connection with this, the study intends to present a new approach to PSYOPS that can achieve the operational goals which set by the leader by applying guerrilla marketing tools and methods.

scholarly journals A new approach to understanding teachers’ classroom practices

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lyla Alsalim
Keyword(s):  
Education Reform ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Classroom Practices ◽  
Teacher Practices ◽  
Traditional Approach ◽  
Reform Initiatives ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Teachers Beliefs ◽  
Recent Reform

Teaching is generally considered a complex practice that involves the constant and dynamic interaction between the teacher, the students and the subject matter. One of the main goals of most education reform initiatives has been to change teachers’ classroom practices. Most recent reform curricula focus on highlighting teacher practices that promote and evoke students’ understanding alongside the changes in content (Tirosh & Graeber, 2003). Changes to a teacher’s role that are included in the education reform movement call for more research in order to understand and theorise teachers’ classroom practices. In this paper, I will present patterns-of-participation (PoP) as a promising framework that aims to understand the role of the teacher for emerging classroom practices. Instead of relying on a traditional approach to understanding classroom practices by analysing teachers’ beliefs, this framework applies a participatory approach to look for patterns in the participation of individual teachers in many social practices at the school and in the classroom. Some of these practices are directly related to the teaching and learning of mathematics while others are not. And some of them relate to communities that are not actually present in the classroom or at the school. PoP views teachers’ social interaction in a certain community as a piece which is influenced by other pieces of social interactions. In every interaction, the ‘pieces’ shape a ‘fluctuating pattern' that shows the shifting impact of different, previous practices and the dynamic relations between them (Skott, 2010; 2011; 2013).

The relationship between university EFL teachers’ oral feedback beliefs and practices and the impact of individual differences

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dogan Yuksel ◽  
Adem Soruç ◽  
Jim McKinley
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Corrective Feedback ◽  
Teaching Experience ◽  
Educational Background ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
Special Training ◽  
Teachers Beliefs ◽  
Efl Teachers ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract This study investigated Turkish EFL teachers’ beliefs and practices about the aspects of oral corrective feedback (OCF). It explored the impact of individual differences, namely educational background, special training, and teaching experience, on the relationship between the beliefs and practices. Data on teachers’ practices were collected via 153 h of classroom observations from 51 Turkish EFL teachers at two different universities, and teachers’ beliefs were gathered by a task about OCF. The results showed that teachers’ beliefs and practices were consistent on the aspects of perceived effectiveness, grammatical errors, implicit and explicit feedback. However, their beliefs and practices were inconsistent regarding lexical, phonological errors, and timing of OCF. The results also revealed that of the three individual differences, teaching experience most impacted the consistency between beliefs and practices, thus showing the greater role of teaching experience over special training and educational background on the consistency between beliefs and practices about OCF.

scholarly journals Oral Corrective Feedback: Investigating Kurdish High School Teachers’ Beliefs and Practices

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 115
Author(s):  
Yaseen Alzeebaree ◽  
Hussein Ali Ahmed ◽  
Idrees Ali Hasan
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
High School Teachers ◽  
Classroom Practices ◽  
Corrective Feedback ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
Teachers Beliefs ◽  
Oral Corrective Feedback ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Academic Qualifications ◽  
The Relationship

The current research explores the relationship between the beliefs and the actual classroom practices of the Kurdish teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL) regarding oral corrective feedback (OCF). To collect the data required, a questionnaire was administered to 8 Kurdish teachers of EFL of different academic qualifications from three different schools, and likewise a 5-hour audio-recorded classroom observation was carried out with the same sample. The findings revealed that almost all teachers’ beliefs were identical with their actual practices with regard to who should provide OCF. In contrast, there was a discrepancy between their stated beliefs and practices in classroom regarding the timing of OCF, how to provide OCF and which types of errors to correct. The teachers highlighted the importance and the effectiveness of providing corrective feedback in EFL settings.

scholarly journals Using AI Methods to Evaluate a Minimal Model for Perception

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 503-524 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Prentner ◽  
Chris Fields
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Understanding ◽  
Single Agent ◽  
Psychological Problem ◽  
Machine Learning Techniques ◽  
Distributed Network ◽  
Perceptual Inference ◽  
Interacting Agents ◽  
Learning Techniques ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractThe relationship between philosophy and research on artificial intelligence (AI) has been difficult since its beginning, with mutual misunderstanding and sometimes even hostility. By contrast, we show how an approach informed by both philosophy and AI can be productive. After reviewing some popular frameworks for computation and learning, we apply the AI methodology of “build it and see” to tackle the philosophical and psychological problem of characterizing perception as distinct from sensation. Our model comprises a network of very simple, but interacting agents which have binary experiences of the “yes/no”-type and communicate their experiences with each other. When does such a network refer to a single agent instead of a distributed network of entities? We apply machine learning techniques to address the following related questions: i) how can the model explain stability of compound entities, and ii) how could the model implement a single task such as perceptual inference? We thereby find consistency with previous work on “interface” strategies from perception research.While this reflects some necessary conditions for the ascription of agency, we suggest that it is not sufficient. Here, AI research, if it is intended to contribute to conceptual understanding, would benefit from issues previously raised by philosophy. We thus conclude the article with a discussion of action-selection, the role of embodiment, and consciousness to make this more explicit. We conjecture that a combination of AI research and philosophy allows general principles of mind and being to emerge from a “quasi-empirical” investigation.

scholarly journals Influences of Culture in the Built Environment; Assessing Living Convenience in Kabul City

Urban Science ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 44
Author(s):  
Osama Hidayat ◽  
Yoshitaka Kajita
Keyword(s):  
Built Environment ◽  
Urban Development ◽  
Conceptual Understanding ◽  
Culturally Responsive ◽  
Belief Systems ◽  
Sustainable Urban Development ◽  
Social Dimensions ◽  
Local Municipalities ◽  
The Relationship

During Afghanistan’s rapid urban growth, development diversified from state-run initiatives to ones led by local municipalities or nongovernmental entities such as private enterprises. Owing to these various efforts, cities face environmental challenges, squatter settlements, and unbalanced development. Responding to these interconnected challenges, cities need to increase their resilience to deal with the combined effects of urbanization, changing geopolitical contexts, and culture. In this study, we focused on dimensions of culturally responsive solutions for the built environment in Kabul, Afghanistan. Culture, as a key element in the concept of sustainable development, refers herein to the relationship between Afghan customs and belief systems as it influences and shapes the architecture of the urban environment. Initially, the study provides a conceptual understanding of sustainable urban development and the importance of culture. We have attempted to approach urban segregation in Kabul based on socioeconomic factors and address the essential role of culture in this unique context. Such segregation can be hazardous to both the current and future sustainability of urban development. To conclude, we provide in-depth insights into the contribution of culture and propose culture as a possible dimension of sustainability and an integral part of environmental, economic, and social dimensions of development.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document