PROCEEDINGS OF THE 15TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON RESEARCH IN UNDERGRADUATE MATHEMATICS EDUCATION (Vol 2)
2012
Portland, Oregon
Investigating Instructors’ Concerns as They Learn to Teach with Inquiry-Based Learning Methods
Page: 2-507
We report initial findings of a study that seeks to investigate the changing nature of instructors’ concerns as they learn to teach mathematics courses using inquiry-based learning approaches. Using year-long data from interviews with faculty and bi-monthly teaching logs, we seek to describe the concerns of instructors teaching with this method. Our initial analysis of pilot data with four instructors new to the method suggests that these concerns are organized into five major themes: Student preparation, motivation, and engagement; Coverage; Rigor; Difficulty of the material; and Student Learning. Additionally, the nature and relative frequency of these concerns seem to suggest that these faculty are more preoccupied with managerial aspects of teaching and less with student learning, consistent with a proposed developmental model of professional expertise in teaching. We seek input on the instrument used to gather the data as current results might be consequential to the organization of the instrument.