Past Presentations

Abstract/Description: How teachers reason with their mathematical meanings when making curricular decisions

Abstract/Description: Teachers utilizing student mathematical thinking is important when teaching, yet many inservice teachers find it difficult to implement. The Standards for Preparing Teachers of Mathematics (AMTE, 2017) outline the knowledge, skills, and dispositions that beginning teachers should have after graduating including the importance of attending to and interpreting student mathematical thinking. In this paper, we present results from two focused video analysis assignments that our pre-service teachers engaged in to identify their images of student mathematical thinking and their ability to attend to and interpret student mathematical thinking.

Abstract/Description: Curricular reasoning (CR) is the thinking processes that teachers use to make decisions (e.g., what content to teach, the tasks to facilitate student learning). In this presentation, we outline five CR aspects gleaned from research with middle grades mathematics teachers as they planned and implemented instruction with unfamiliar curriculum.

Abstract/Description: In this session we will work on a real-world task that is appropriate for students from upper middle school to college: predicting when a ceiling fan will stop after watching it slow down for 30 seconds. We will discuss the nature and use of modeling tasks in school.

Abstract/Description: In order to leverage the power behind the mathematical definition of reflections as a transformation, we examine how curriculum, teacher decisions, and student interpretations of reflections relate to one another.

Abstract/Description: An analysis of Japanese and U.S. lesson plans show that some are good at helping teachers improve their teaching. The most prominent feature is the use of student mathematical thinking. It is a lot easier to make effective instructional choices when you know how students will respond. Come find out how to write what teachers could really use.

Abstract/Description: My best problems come from situations where I have actually used math to solve a real problem in my life, from 3D printing loaded dice to wondering about tie-dyed t-shirts. We will work on some of these problems that I use to motivate and apply math, then talk about how to find such problems. Many of these have made great STEM fair projects.

Abstract/Description: This presentation will explore how to engage the children in our life in meaningful mathematical conversations outside the classroom in order to encourage mathematical curiosity and positive dispositions, and how to provide advice and resources for the parents of our students who wish to do the same.

Abstract/Description: Incorporating student mathematical thinking into classroom instruction is a best practice, but not all student thinking provides the same leverage for accomplishing mathematical goals. Learn about characteristics of student thinking that can be used to determine which thinking has significant potential to support students’ learning of mathematics.

Abstract/Description: Unfortunately, students far too often have little or no intellectual need for learning the second semester calculus topic of Taylor and power series. In this study, we examine the “potential intellectual needs” (PINs) provided by commonly used textbooks. While the textbooks used different approaches, they both often lacked problems developing intellectual need, suggesting that instructors must incorporate intellectual need by themselves. To assist in this endeavor, we focus part of the paper on a discussion of including PINs for this content. We found that it may be difficult to incorporate genuine problems for first-year students through an approach based on a “family of series” meaning for Taylor/power series, but that stronger problems could be incorporated through an approach based on an “extension of linear approximation” meaning.