PROCEEDINGS OF THE 20TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON RESEARCH IN UNDERGRADUATE MATHEMATICS EDUCATION
2017
San Diego, California
Opportunities to learn from teaching: A case study of two graduate teaching assistants
Page: 1475
Graduate students teach many first year undergraduate mathematics courses, such as CollegeAlgebra and Calculus. In this report, we focus on the opportunities to learn to teach thatgraduate student teaching assistants (GTAs) construct from reflecting on their teachingexperiences. Research in professional development suggests that although reflection isabsolutely essential to improving one’s teaching, teachers have the greatest opportunity to learnfrom their teaching when they can mobilize their interpretations of teaching to inform specificand nuanced future actions. Yet, there are few studies addressing the ways in which GTAsdevelop opportunities to learn from reflection. In this case study, we examine how two graduatestudents developed the ability to link observations of student work to hypotheses about studentthinking and then connect these hypotheses about student thinking to future teaching actions.These reflections were generated as a part of a professional development program for GTAs.Key words: