PROCEEDINGS OF THE 17TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON RESEARCH IN UNDERGRADUATE MATHEMATICS EDUCATION
2014
Denver, Colorado
Mathematics Teachers’ Models of Quantitative Reasoning
Page: 633
The purpose of this study was to document mathematics teachers’ models of quantitative reasoning as they participated in a Model Eliciting Activity (MEA) grounded in their classroom practice. This MEA was designed and implemented in a master's course of 21 in- service mathematics teachers. The documents produced by the teachers were analyzed using a models and modeling perspective to determine how teachers’ models of quantitative reasoning developed through the MEA. Findings from this study included a framework describing the two ways teachers developed their model of quantitative reasoning. First, teachers’ models of quantitative reasoning became more coherent by being better articulated and connected between abstract and practical settings. Second, the middle school teachers’ models became more aligned with mathematics education literature by referring to quantities and quantitative relationships as aspects of quantitative reasoning, while most high school teachers’ models did not become more aligned with literature.