PROCEEDINGS OF THE 15TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON RESEARCH IN UNDERGRADUATE MATHEMATICS EDUCATION (Vol 2)
2012
Portland, Oregon
Prospective Elementary Teachers’ Evolving Meanings for Generalizing, Doing Mathematics and Justifying
Page: 2-202
We viewed the classroom as a culture of mathematizing (Bauersfeld, 1993) and documented evolving meanings that prospective elementary teachers gave to their instructor’s expectation that they “find general solutions,” “do mathematics” and “justify solutions” during a semester- long inquiry-based course. Classroom observations and interviews with student informants suggest that almost three weeks passed before the students in the class gave normative meanings to their instructor’s request for general solutions and to her expectation that they do mathematics, and it was not until the eleventh week that students understood that justifying a solution meant providing a mathematical argument that explained why the solution was valid. Furthermore, the data suggest that giving normative meaning to these mathematical activities is prerequisite to success, and that as students came to make sense of generalizing, doing mathematics and justifying, they improved in their abilities to do these activities and they began to see them as valuable.