PROCEEDINGS OF THE 22ND ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON RESEARCH IN UNDERGRADUATE MATHEMATICS EDUCATION
2019
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
The interaction between a teacher’s mathematical conceptions and instructional practices
Page: 102
This study raises questions about a common assumption that an advanced degree in mathematics is sufficient for teaching courses in undergraduate mathematics meaningfully. The study reports results from 24 mathematics PhD students’ solutions to a precalculus level problem requiring quantitative reasoning. We also describe the PhD students’ conceptions of what knowledge is needed to produce a meaningful solution to this task. These graduate students’ problem solving approaches and images of the reasoning abilities needed to solve the problem were classified as having either a static calculational orientation or a dynamic conceptual orientation. We share how these two orientations are exhibited in the context of teaching precalculus students. We further illustrate ways in which a teacher’s actions to support her students in conceptualizing and relating quantities led to her engaging her students in more dynamic conceptually oriented discussions.