Characterizing mentors’ performance in mathematics teacher education

This study describes the performance of the mentors in a blended graduate-level training program of teachers in the field of secondary school mathematics. We codified and analyzed the mentors’ comments on the projects presented by the groups of in-service teachers for whom they (the mentors) were responsible. To do this, we developed a structure of categories and codes based on a combination of a literature review, a model of teacher learning, and a cyclical review of the data. We performed two types of analysis: frequency and cluster. The first analysis permitted us to characterize the common actions shared by most of the mentors. From the second, we established three profiles of the mentors’ actions

An experience of teacher education on task design in Colombia

We describe an experience in task design within an in-service secondary mathematics teacher education program in Colombia. Following a model known as didactic analysis, a team of researchers, educators, mentors and practicing teachers worked together in designing, implementing, assessing and reformulating secondary school mathematics tasks. We present here the main features of the framework on which the program is based, identify some of the characteristics of the experience lived by trainees, educators and researchers on task design during the first implementation of the program, and analyse the trainees’ assessment on their own proposals of tasks and on the contribution of the program on their task design competencies

Characterization about tutor´s actuation in the teachers training of mathematics

En este estudio se describe la actuación de los tutores en un programa híbrido de formación de postgrado para profesores de matemáticas de secundaria en ejercicio. Codificamos y analizamos los comentarios de los tutores a los trabajos de los grupos de profesores en formación a su cargo. Para ello, construimos una estructura de categorías y códigos conjugando una revisión de literatura, una visión del aprendizaje de los profesores en formación y una revisión cíclica de los datos. Realizamos dos tipos de análisis: de frecuencias y clúster. El primer análisis nos permitió caracterizar las actuaciones comunes a la mayoría de los tutores. Con el segundo análisis establecimos tres perfiles de la actuación de los tutores.This study describes the performance of the mentors in a blended graduate-level training program of teachers in the field of secondary school mathematics. We codified and analyzed the mentors’ comments on the projects presented by the groups of in-service teachers for whom they (the mentors) were responsible. To do this, we developed a structure of categories and codes based on a combination of a literature review, a model of teacher learning, and a cyclical review of the data. We performed two types of analysis: frequency and cluster. The first analysis permitted us to characterize the common actions shared by most of the mentors. From the second, we established three profiles of the mentors’ actions.Grupo FORCE (HUM-386). Departamento de Didáctica y Organización Escolar de la Universidad de Granada

Caracterización de la actuación de tutores en la formación de profesores de matemáticas

En este estudio se describe la actuación de los tutores en un programa híbrido de formación de postgrado para profesores de matemáticas de secundaria en ejercicio. Codificamos y analizamos los comentarios de los tutores a los trabajos de los grupos de profesores en formación a su cargo. Para ello, construimos una estructura de categorías y códigos conjugando una revisión de literatura, una visión del aprendizaje de los profesores en formación y una revisión cíclica de los datos. Realizamos dos tipos de análisis: de frecuencias y clúster. El primer análisis nos permitió caracterizar las actuaciones comunes a la mayoría de los tutores. Con el segundo análisis establecimos tres perfiles de la actuación de los tutores

Papel de los comentarios del tutor en el desempeño de profesores de matemáticas en formación

We study the relationship between mentors’ and mathematics teachers’ performance in an education program. To this end, we characterize the relationship between the changes made in the written productions of three groups of teachers and the characteristics of their mentors’ comments that could motivate those changes—type of comment, content, and knowledge type. The analysis of these relationships was performed with the help of contingency tables and logistic regressions. We found that, for the whole group of teachers, the changes made by them depend on the type of knowledge and on the content to which the comments referEstudiamos la relación entre el desempeño de grupos de profesores de matemáticas y la actuación de sus tutores en un programa de formación. Para ello, caracterizamos la relación entre los cambios realizados en sus producciones por tres grupos de profesores y las características de los comentarios de sus tutores que pudieron motivar esos cambios —tipo de comentario, contenido y tipo de conocimiento—. Analizamos estas relaciones con base en tablas de contingencia y regresiones logísticas. Encontramos que, para el grupo global, el tipo de cambio depende del tipo de conocimiento y del contenido al que se alude en el comentario.The work on this paper was partially supported by the Centro de Investigación y Formación en Educación [Center for research and training in Education] (CIFE) of the Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia. We are grateful to María José González for their comments on an earlier version of the manuscript

Role of the mentor’s comments in the performance of mathematics teachers

We study the relationship between mentors’ and mathematics teachers’ performance in an education program. To this end, we characterize the relationship between the changes made in the written productions of three groups of teachers and the characteristics of their mentors’ comments that could motivate those changes—type of comment, content, and knowledge type. The analysis of these relationships was performed with the help of contingency tables and logistic regressions. We found that, for the whole group of teachers, the changes made by them depend on the type of knowledge and on the content to which the comments referPapel de los comentarios del tutor en el desempeño de profesores de matemáticas en formaciónEstudiamos la relación entre el desempeño de grupos de profesores de matemáticas y la actuación de sus tutores en un programa de formación. Para ello, caracterizamos la relación entre los cambios realizados en sus producciones por tres grupos de profesores y las características de los comentarios de sus tutores que pudieron motivar esos cambios —tipo de comentario, contenido y tipo de conocimiento—. Analizamos estas relaciones con base en tablas de contingencia y regresiones logísticas. Encontramos que, para el grupo global, el tipo de cambio depende del tipo de conocimiento y del contenido al que se alude en el comentario.Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10481/36052 WOS-ESC

Community Building With And For Teachers At The Math Forum

This chapter addresses the way in which the Internet forms the core of an intentional, online community by promoting communication between interested parties. The Math Forum (mathforum.org) is a unique group of individuals who are committed to using computers and the Internet to enhance what they know about learning, teaching, and doing mathematics. The Math Forum includes programmers, project and service staff, Web persons, and an ever-expanding number of teachers, students, and other individuals (i.e., parents, software developers, mathematicians). Thus, community building for The Math Forum staff includes work with teachers, with partners (National Council of the Teachers of Mathematics, Mathematics Association of America, and so on), and with specific services developed by The Math Forum staff that enable teachers and students to come together to pose and seek solutions to problems. The Math Forum uses the Internet to provide interactive services that foster mathematical thinking and discussion. These services include Ask Dr. Math and several Problems of the Week (PoWs); a teacher discussion format called Teacher to Teacher (T2T); an archive of problems, participant contributions (e.g., lesson plans), and past discussions; and an Internet newsletter. Within four years, with no explicit efforts to garner promotion or publicity, the site grew to include 1,600,000 Web pages and to attract 3.5 million accesses and over 800,000 visitors per month – a third of which constitutes sticky traffic ranging from world-famous mathematicians to elementary school children

Exploring the Development of Core Teaching Practices in the Context of Inquiry-based Science Instruction: An Interpretive Case Study

This paper describes our reflection on a clinical-based teacher preparation program. We examined a context in which novice pre-service teachers and a mentor teacher implemented inquiry-based science instruction to help students make sense of genetic engineering. We utilized developmental models of professional practice that outline the complexity inherent in professional knowledge as a conceptual framework to analyze teacher practice. Drawing on our analysis, we developed a typography of understandings of inquiry-based science instruction that teachers in our cohort held and generated a two dimensional model characterizing pathways through which teachers develop core teaching practices supporting inquiry-based science instruction

Acquiring the notion of learning hypotheses in mathematics teacher education

The notion of hypothetical learning trajectory has generated much interest among experts in mathematics education. It is proposed that this notion is a useful tool in teachers’ teaching practice and that it is necessary to prepare teachers in their capacity to formulate hypothetical learning trajectories about specific mathematics school topics. It is therefore also necessary to explore the learning processes that teachers undergo when learning this notion in their education. In this article, we introduce the notion of learning hypotheses as an adaptation of the idea of hypothetical learning trajectory (SIMON, 1995). We describe how the groups of secondary-school mathematics teachers that participated in a teacher education program understood and used this notion in order to determine the contribution of a set of tasks to a learning goal previously established. We found that the groups developed their knowledge of the notion of learning hypotheses and used it in a heterogeneous way, and that the education program was partly successful in its goal to make the groups of teachers learn and perceive the notion’s utility