PROCEEDINGS OF THE 22ND ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON RESEARCH IN UNDERGRADUATE MATHEMATICS EDUCATION
2019
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Responsiveness as a disposition and its impact on instruction
Page: 239
There is evidence that instructors who are responsive to students’ thinking tend to provide more positive learning experience for students. Additionally, effective instruction relies on an instructor’s ability to respond to student thinking, which is especially relevant due to the increased attention on improving college mathematics instruction. In order to investigate instructor responsiveness to student thinking as a disposition (that guides action) and responsiveness to student thinking as an action (the enacted evidence of the underlying disposition), eight college Calculus instructors were interviewed three times over the course of one academic year. A thematic analysis of the task-based interviews indicated that instructors who exhibited a responsive disposition to their students’ thinking enact this through eliciting student thinking, reflecting on student thinking, and responding to student thinking. Further, these instructors view themselves as decision-makers, and thus feel empowered to act on their responsive disposition.