Research, Reflection, and Practice: Writing for an Audience in a Mathematics Methods Course

2004 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 480-486
Author(s):  
Alfinio Flores ◽  
Carmina M. Brittain
Keyword(s):  
Elementary Teachers ◽  
Prospective Teachers ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Methods Course ◽  
Mathematics Methods ◽  
Prospective Elementary Teachers ◽  
Knowledge And Attitudes ◽  
Mathematics Methods Course ◽  
First Time ◽  
Natural Way

During their first mathematics methods course, many prospective elementary teachers confront their previous conceptions about mathematics and its teaching for the first time. This juncture makes the course important in their evolution as teachers of mathematics. Prospective teachers in a mathematics methods course must develop the ability to reflect on their actions, beliefs, knowledge, and attitudes. Writing in a mathematics methods course fosters reflection in a natural way; it serves as a tool for documentation, analysis, and discussion to help prospective teachers internalize what they learn and reach new levels of comprehension. At the same time, what teachers in training write gives teacher educators a window into their reflection and growth process.

Research, Reflection, Practice: Writing to Reflect in a Mathematics Methods Course

2003 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 112-118
Author(s):  
Alfinio Flores ◽  
Carmina Brittain
Keyword(s):  
Preservice Teachers ◽  
Elementary Teachers ◽  
Prospective Teachers ◽  
Writing To Learn ◽  
Preservice Elementary Teachers ◽  
Methods Course ◽  
Mathematics Methods ◽  
Methods Courses ◽  
Mathematics Methods Course ◽  
Principles And Standards

For more than a decade, several authors have highlighted the benefits to students of writing to learn mathematics. Writing is an important component of communication in the classroom. As Principles and Standards for School Mathematics (NCTM 2000) notes, “Writing in mathematics can also help students consolidate their thinking because it requires them to reflect on their work and clarify their thoughts about the ideas developed in the lesson” (p. 61). Teachers probably will not use this tool, however, unless they have had the experience themselves of writing in relation to mathematics. This article presents a brief review of the benefits of students writing to learn mathematics. In the second part of the article, we invite the reader to consider another possible use of writing: as a tool to help preservice teachers reflect on their own growth as they learn to teach mathematics. We discuss some of the benefits that writing has for prospective teachers and present examples of preservice elementary teachers' writing that were collected in several one-semester undergraduate mathematics methods courses that the first author taught. The second author participated as a student in one of the courses. In a second article to be published in this journal, we will focus on the process of writing and writing for an audience.

Forum on teacher preparation: A mathematics laboratory for prospective teachers

1970 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-78
Author(s):  
David M. Clarkson
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Prospective Teachers ◽  
Methods Course ◽  
Mathematical Activity ◽  
Schools Of Education ◽  
Mathematics Methods ◽  
Open Problems ◽  
School Officials ◽  
Mathematics Methods Course ◽  
And Mathematics

The Report of the Cambridge Conference on the Correlation of Science and Mathematics in the Schools recommends that schools of education plan programs of “apprentice teaching in the schools, including work with materials of the sort being developed in new curriculum projects.”1 A group of mathematics educators in England has urged the use of courses emphasizing problem solving: “It is the exploration of these more open problems which we feel to be the essential characteristic of real mathematical activity.”2 A loud chorus of opinion suggests that courses in methodology should be jointly planned and executed by both mathematicians and educators and that they should involve practical work with children. When the opportunity to design an experimental elementary mathematics methods course was offered the writer, he decided to emphasize the mathematics laboratory approach which gives an important role to problem solving. Conferences with members of the mathematics and education departments, as well as with school officials, paved the way for the experiment; the sympathetic support of the chairman of the division of education at the college made it possible financially.

Simulating Problem Solving and Classroom Settings

1978 ◽  
Vol 25 (8) ◽  
pp. 35-38
Author(s):  
Werner Liedtke ◽  
James Vance
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Elementary Teachers ◽  
Methods Course ◽  
Mathematics Methods ◽  
Mathematics Methods Course ◽  
Instructional Settings ◽  
The University

The simulation of various classroom settings in which problem-solving activities occur is one aspect of the mathematics methods course for elementary teachers at the University of Victoria. By participating in these sessions, the students are made aware of some of the possible instructional settings that they might use as teachers and the important role that problem solving plays in the curriculum. Some of these settings and problems are described here and some results of the students' involvement in the program are illustrated.

Supporting Teacher Learning: Shaping Prospective Teachers' Justifications for Computation: Challenges and Opportunities

2007 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 112-116
Author(s):  
Theresa J. Grant ◽  
Jane-Jane Lo ◽  
Judith Flowers
Keyword(s):  
Elementary Teachers ◽  
Prospective Teachers ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Sense Making ◽  
Major Focus ◽  
Prospective Elementary Teachers ◽  
Difficult Time ◽  
Whole Number ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Mathematical Justification

This article discusses the challenges and opportunities that arose in attempting to support prospective elementary teachers in developing mathematical justifications in the context of wholenumber computation. Justification for whole-number computation is important for three reasons. First, this is the introductory topic in the first of three mathematics courses for prospective elementary teachers. Second, the number and operations strand is a major focus in elementary school. Third, in our experience as teacher educators, prospective elementary teachers have a difficult time considering how and why to teach whole-number computation in a conceptual manner. If prospective teachers' reasoning and justifications can be shaped in this area of mathematics, sense making and mathematical justification in other areas of mathematics can be shaped as well (Simon and Blume 1996).

scholarly journals Creative Character Education in Mathematics for Prospective Teachers

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 1730
Author(s):  
Dong-Joong Kim ◽  
Sung-Chul Bae ◽  
Sang-Ho Choi ◽  
Hee-Jeong Kim ◽  
Woong Lim
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Preservice Teachers ◽  
Character Education ◽  
Prospective Teachers ◽  
Teacher Education Program ◽  
Mathematics Teacher Education ◽  
Methods Course ◽  
Mathematics Methods ◽  
Mathematics Methods Course ◽  
Teachers Perspectives

This study examines preservice teachers’ perspectives of creativity and character education in mathematics through a university-based teacher education program. We developed a curricular unit on creative character education in a mathematics methods course and investigated participants’ (n = 56) emerging perspectives of teaching creativity and character by the integration of content and process in mathematics. Data were collected through pre- and post-questionnaires and transcribed course discussion and presentation sessions. A quantitative analysis of the questionnaires through a t-test confirmed key changes in participants’ perspectives, while the qualitative context of data illustrates the participants’ emergent views on creative character education in mathematics. Overall, findings suggest that a mathematics teacher education curriculum integrating mathematical creativity and character education has the potential to prepare future educators to implement pedagogy that bridges between process and content in school mathematics for the next generation of learners.

scholarly journals The Influence of a Science Methods Course on Prospective Elementary Teachers’ Visions of Science Teaching

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Martha M Canipe ◽  
Jessica Y Coronado Verdugo
Keyword(s):  
Elementary Teachers ◽  
Science Teaching ◽  
Science Teachers ◽  
Prospective Teachers ◽  
Teacher Education Program ◽  
Teaching Science ◽  
Methods Course ◽  
Science Methods ◽  
Science Methods Course ◽  
Prospective Elementary Teachers

Prospective elementary teachers may enter their teacher education program having experienced science more as a collection of definitions and facts than in ways that support rich engagement with scientific phenomena. As a result, their visions of themselves as science teachers may not align with the most recent understandings about how to teach science to support student learning. Science methods courses are settings that have the potential to shift prospective teachers’ visions of science teaching. We used an explanatory sequential mixed methods approach with collection of survey data followed by interviews with selected participants. We analyzed how prospective elementary teachers’ visions of science teaching shifted over the course of a one-semester science methods course and what experiences they felt most influenced their visions of teaching science. We found that the visions of science teaching shifted towards or maintained alignment with the principles of science teaching introduced in the science methods course. Additionally, the prospective teachers identified model science activities and explicit connections between these activities and how students learn science as having influenced them in terms of how they thought about teaching science.

Building Synergy: Cognitively Guided Instruction and Implementation of a Simulated edTPA Elementary Mathematics Task During an Undergraduate Methods Course

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 40-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tiffany G. Jacobs ◽  
Marvin E. Smith ◽  
Susan Swars Auslander ◽  
Stephanie Z. Smith ◽  
Kayla D. Myers
Keyword(s):  
Prospective Teachers ◽  
Elementary Mathematics ◽  
Teacher Preparation Programs ◽  
Methods Course ◽  
Cognitively Guided Instruction ◽  
Mathematics Methods ◽  
Preparation Programs ◽  
Teachers Experiences ◽  
Mathematics Methods Course ◽  
Guided Instruction

Teacher preparation programs face increasing demands to demonstrate the competencies of prospective teachers in their programs, while maintaining a focus on developing high-leverage instructional practices in their methods coursework. This study used a mixed methods approach to examine how the implementation of a simulated edTPA elementary mathematics task influenced prospective teachers' experiences in an elementary mathematics methods course. The course curriculum featured cognitively guided instruction (CGI) as the exemplar for understanding and implementing problembased, cognitively oriented pedagogy. Our findings indicate that elements of both CGI and the simulated edTPA mathematics task worked synergistically to enhance opportunities for CGI-type lesson enactment, support productive changes in beliefs, and contribute to the prospective elementary teachers' (PTs) preparation.

scholarly journals Formatively assessing prospective teachers’ skills in leading mathematics discussions

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meghan Shaughnessy ◽  
Nicole M. Garcia ◽  
Michaela Krug O’Neill ◽  
Sarah Kate Selling ◽  
Amber T. Willis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Elementary Teachers ◽  
Formative Assessment ◽  
Conceptual Understanding ◽  
Prospective Teachers ◽  
First Year ◽  
Teacher Education Programs ◽  
First Year Teachers ◽  
Education Programs ◽  
Prospective Elementary Teachers ◽  
Making Sense

AbstractMathematics discussions are important for helping students to develop conceptual understanding and to learn disciplinary norms and practices. In recent years, there has been increased attention to teaching prospective teachers to lead discussions with students. This paper examines the possibilities of designing a formative assessment that gathers information about prospective elementary teachers’ skills with leading problem-based mathematics discussions and makes sense of such information. A decomposition of the practice of leading discussions was developed and used to design the assessment. Nine first-year teachers who graduated from a range of different teacher education programs participated in the study. The findings reveal that our formative assessment works to gather information about teachers’ capabilities with leading discussions and that the associated tools support making sense of the information gathered. This suggests that such tools could be useful to support the formative assessment of the developing capabilities of prospective teachers.

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