Engaging Prospective Teachers in Defining Mutuality
Summary: Members of the Transformations Working Group will discuss their lesson study that has now been taught three times in various settings. The purpose of the lesson was to foster normative precision in describing and defining geometric transformations, including symmetries, and to foster dispositions to attend to prospective students’ mathematical identities. We call it the “Adinkra” lesson since we have students mathematically analyze Adinkra symbols originating from Ghana. We will describe the lesson and what we learned from our observations.
Registration Closed
Duration: 60 minutes
Format: Online seminar via Zoom web meeting software with questions and discussion. Detailed instructions for joining the seminar will be emailed to registered participants.
Presenter:
Dr. Steven Boyce is an Associate Professor of the Fariborz Maseeh Department of Mathematics and Statistics at Portland State University. Dr. Boyce’s research involves modeling students’ constructions of mathematical concepts and (prospective) teachers’ constructions of mathematical knowledge for teaching. His particular interests include quantitative and transformational reasoning and their roles in mathematical modeling and data science. He received his PhD from Virginia Tech in 2014.
Julia St. Goar is an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Merrimack College. She received her undergraduate degree in mathematics at Agnes Scott College and her PhD in mathematics from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where she completed her dissertation in the field of discrete fractional calculus. Since arriving at Merrimack College, she has transitioned her research to focus on math education, including a focus on how future teachers learn geometry proofs from a transformation perspective. Although she teaches courses throughout the math sequence, she has a special focus on teaching future teachers.
Laura Pyzdrowski is a Professor of Mathematics at West Virginia University.
Dr. Sears is an Associate Professor, associate director for Coalition for Science Literacy with a focus on inclusive excellence, and lead faculty facilitator for the inclusive and equitable pedagogy program at the University of South Florida. She also coordinates developmental mathematics courses and the secondary mathematics education program. Her research focuses on curriculum issues, the development of reasoning and proof skills, clinical experiences in secondary mathematics, and the integration of technology in mathematics teaching and learning. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses.