Journal of Mathematical Behavior最新文献

We present the results of a teaching experiment designed to foster a pre-service secondary teacher’s construction of a quantitative scheme for constant rate of change. Although the research participant developed a productive conception of constant rate of change as an interiorized ratio, images of chunky continuous covariation constrained her ability to reason efficiently across a variety of applied contexts. The participant constructed a scheme for constant rate of change at the reflected level of thought, which enabled her to become cognizant of its essential aspects and to appreciate its general applicability. Our results suggest that engaging in reflected abstraction is critical for supporting pre-service teachers’ construction of coherent and refined mathematical schemes.

In this paper, the use of mathematical problems rooted in primary historical sources as a diagnostic tool for identifying learners’ understanding about area and volume is examined. The study follows preservice teachers in the context of a compulsory course in mathematics education while dealing with such problems embedding errors and challenging mistaken beliefs about the area of quadrilaterals and the volume of the cube. Although the initial aim was to involve the participants in inquiry-based activities, in the end, the history of mathematics served as a means to reveal the complete or partial understanding of the concepts making evident at the same time the participants’ misconceptions such as the overgeneralization of the rule ‘length times breadth’ and the confusion between area and perimeter concerning the area of the quadrilaterals task, and the illusion of linearity and the confusion between volume and surface area concerning the volume of the cube task.

The general aim of the research was to conduct a rare test of the efficacy of hypothetical learning progressions (HLPs) and a basic assumption of basing instruction on HLPs, namely teaching each successive level is more efficacious than skipping lower levels and teaching the target level directly. The specific aim was evaluating whether counting-based cardinality concepts unfold in a stepwise manner. The research involved a pretest—delayed-posttest design with random assignment of 14 preschoolers to two conditions. The experimental intervention was based on an HLP for cardinality development (first promoting levels that presumably support and are necessary for the target level and then the target knowledge). The active-control treatment entailed a Teach-to-Target approach (first promoting irrelevant cardinality knowledge about recognizing written numbers and then directly teaching the same target-level goals with the same explicit instruction and similar games). A mix of quantitative and qualitative analyses indicated HLP participants performed significantly and substantially better than Teach-to-Target participants on target-level concept and skill measures. Moreover, the former tended to make sensible errors, whereas the latter generally responded cluelessly.

This Virtual Special Issue on Mathematics in Society: Exploring the Mathematics that Underpins Social Issues features 13 articles which expand our understanding of how people build, retain, communicate, apply, and comprehend mathematical ideas as they relate to social and societal issues. The focus is on education research that explores the ways in which mathematics and a mathematical worldview can influence choices, on educational, personal and societal levels. We take a broad view and raise questions about what it means to be mathematical in society, and we consider the multifaceted ways in which abilities to derive and interpret information presented mathematically are also necessary in and for society.

Early algebra can prepare elementary students for the transition they will need to make from arithmetic and algebra. Although teacher preparation programs emphasize the teaching of early algebra, research on how to prepare elementary pre-service teachers (PSTs) to teach early algebra is still scarce. The replication study reported in this article was a conceptual replication study designed to examine Iranian PSTs’ reasoning about pre-symbolic early algebra by looking at what was more, somewhat, and less challenging. The aims of the replication study aligned with the original study (Hohensee, 2017). Results from the replication study show that participating PSTs (N = 15) found the early algebra approach to variables and functions more challenging, indeterminable unknowns somewhat challenging, and equivalence and equations less challenging. We make comparisons with the original study, as well as offer implications and suggestions for preparing PSTs to teach early algebra.

Dynamic geometry software (DGS) has long been studied in mathematics education as a way for students to explore and interact with geometric objects and figures. Recent advances in Augmented Reality (AR) technologies that allow dynamic three-dimensional mathematical objects to appear in students’ environment as holograms have changed the nature of what is possible for a DGS, particularly with respect to embodiment. New forms of embodied interactions may arise in AR-based DGS, as students gesture and move their bodies through their environment, taking different perspectives to interact with these immersive shapes projected in three dimensions. In the present study, we examine videos of 28 high school students interacting with an AR-based version of the DGS GeoGebra, while wearing the Microsoft HoloLens 2 headsets. We document the novel kinds of embodied interactions that the AR environment affords, relating to (1) perspective and orientation, (2) scale, (3) three dimensions. Based on our analysis, we give important directions for future research on DGS and implications for the design of the next generation of holographic DGS.

Group isomorphism and homomorphism are core concepts in abstract algebra, and student understanding of isomorphism has received extensive attention in line with the centrality of this topic. However, limited work has directly examined student conceptions of homomorphism or what metaphors students use to express their thought processes while problem solving. Based on interviews with four students, we contrast two students who used predominantly formal definition and mapping-centered metaphors for homomorphism with two who additionally used sameness-centered metaphors and note that the usage or non-usage of sameness-centered metaphors was not indicative of successful problem solving. Implications include the alignment between students’ metaphors and those used in instruction, indicating the importance of attending to metaphors when teaching, and the importance of discussing what is intended by some sameness-based metaphors, such as operation-preservation.

This non-interventional study investigates the contribution of university mathematics to teaching high-school mathematics. Data sources included interviews with five teachers who taught high-school mathematics before, during, and after their academic mathematics studies. All teachers provided tangible examples of fundamental changes in instructional practices that they explicitly linked to new knowledge acquired in the academic mathematics courses. The domain of analysis in general, and the topics of integrals and derivatives in particular, were central in the teachers’ illustrations of changes they made in their teaching, although other mathematical topics and domains were also mentioned. The reported changes were mostly associated with emphasis on mathematical explanations, exposition of two key elements of the deductive structure of mathematics: definition and proof, an increased focus on formal mathematics, and portrayal of mathematics as a wide and varied discipline. The study results are discussed in light of the relevant literature.

Background

This comparative case study examined the use of math walks with middle grade youths and adult facilitators in an informal STEM learning space. Math walks are place-based walking tours where youths and facilitators critically examine and ask math-related questions about their environment.

Method

Drawing on situated theories of learning and frameworks for understanding group participation, we examined how facilitators constrained or supported youths’ mathematical thinking as they participated in math walks at the local zoo.

Results

Using interaction and stance analysis, we identified, analyzed, and compared three contrasting cases: In the first case, the facilitator may have overly constrained youths’ mathematical thinking by asking leading questions and not providing time for youths to discuss their personal interests. In the second case, the facilitator may have underly constrained youths’ mathematical thinking by allowing youths to ask too many new questions without refining or developing any one specific question. In the third case, the facilitator supported mathematical thinking by praising youths’ work, layering on mathematical terminology, and providing clear and actionable instructions for how youths could refine their mathematical questions.

Conclusions

Findings support efforts to understand how adult facilitators can support youths in seeing mathematics within and asking mathematical questions about the world around them.

The literature has highlighted the significant role of definitions and defining in mathematics learning and teaching. Furthermore, non-prototypical figures are particularly important when teaching geometry, but teachers and pre-service teachers still have problems defining them. For these reasons, we investigated whether there were differences in the way that pre-service mathematics teachers constructed and selected definitions for prototypical and non-prototypical solids. In particular, the commognitive framework was employed to investigate the differences in the discourse of 33 pre-service secondary-school teachers when constructing and selecting definitions in task situations that involved prototypical and non-prototypical solids. Moreover, we studied if some commognitive conflicts appeared in task situations involving non-prototypical solids but not in similar task situations involving prototypical solids. The findings show some differences between the pre-service teachers’ discourses in both types of task situations. Additionally, some commognitive conflicts appeared only in task situations with non-prototypical solids. Lastly, we classified those commognitive conflicts.