Faculty Scholarly Dissemination Grants
Teaching Experiments: A Vehicle for Practice-based Professional Development
Department
Mathematics Department
Date Range
2014-2015
Disciplines
Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Abstract
Professional development is considered a vehicle to assist in developing teacher capacities; one approach for supporting teachers is through practice-based professional development where teachers engage in activities central to their daily work of teaching. In this paper we present the results of a qualitative study investigating how teachers build mathematical and pedagogical knowledge by adapting design experiments to a professional development context. Through the use of case studies we examine if teachers of mathematics can, and to what extent, engage in experiments in teaching, an iterative cycle of three main components: conjecture (posing questions and making conjectures about teaching or learning), implementation (teaching episodes are planned and taught), and analysis which guides the next teaching episode as a intentional method for improving teaching and increasing student learning. In addition, we describe factors that either hinder or promote teachers ability to partake in this in iterative cycle of designing, teaching, reflecting, and redesign of lessons and teaching.
Conference Name
12th International Conference of The Mathematics Education into the 21st Century Project [2014 : The Future of Mathematics Education in a Connected World
Conference Location
Herceg, Novi Montenegro
ScholarWorks Citation
Kasmer, Lisa and Billings, Esther Dr., "Teaching Experiments: A Vehicle for Practice-based Professional Development" (2015). Faculty Scholarly Dissemination Grants. 554.
https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/fsdg/554
