Gauging college mathematics instructors’ knowledge of student thinking about limits
Published: 2018
Publication Name: Proceedings of the 21st Annual Conference on Research in Undergraduate Mathematics Education
Publication URL: http://sigmaa.maa.org/rume/RUME21.pdf
Abstract:
A theme in the literature surrounding instructional practices and knowledge for teaching is that knowledge of how students think about mathematical ideas plays important roles in supporting effective instruction. However, the undergraduate mathematics education community lacks tools for assessing this kind of knowledge. As an initial step toward the development of such assessments, we documented instructors as they examined students’ work on calculus tasks during individual interviews. Transcripts were coded as exhibiting robust, limited, or no evidence of knowledge of student thinking using Jacobs, Lamb, and Philipp’s (2010) framework. The coding process highlighted the varying depth and breadth of instructors’ knowledge. Once refined, this coding process can be used to develop instruments for gauging knowledge of student thinking through means other than interviews. Such instruments will be of use to researchers, to those who design professional development for experienced and novice instructors, and for evaluation of professional development efforts.
Gehrtz, J., Speer, N., & Ellis Hagman, J. (2018). Gauging college mathematics instructors’ knowledge of student thinking about limits. In A. Weinberg, C. Rasmussen, J. Rabin, M. Wawro & S. Brown (Eds.), Proceedings of the 21st Annual Conference on Research in Undergraduate Mathematics Education (pp. 1387–1393). San Diego, California: The Special Interest Group of the Mathematical Association of America for Research in Undergraduate Mathematics Education. http://sigmaa.maa.org/rume/RUME21.pdf