PROCEEDINGS OF THE 22ND ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON RESEARCH IN UNDERGRADUATE MATHEMATICS EDUCATION
2019
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
A mathematician’s instructional change endeavors: Pursuing students’ mathematical thinking
Page: 222
To reform instruction by moving towards student-centered approaches, research has shown that faculty benefit from support and collaboration (Henderson, Beach, & Finkelstein, 2011; Speer & Wagner, 2009). In this study, we examined the ways in which a mathematician’s instruction unfolded during his participation in a faculty collaboration geared towards reforming instruction and aligning it with inquiry oriented instruction (IOI) (Kuster, Johnson, Andrews-Larson, & Keene, 2017). Results indicate the participant’s mathematics background and research interests influenced how he used student thinking in his instruction. More specifically, when mathematics content specifically aligned with the participant’s research interest he often guided students to view differential equations as he did; whereas, when the content was not aligned with his research interest, he was more open to the using his students’ thinking to drive the class forward. Implications and future research directions are discussed.