STEAM Education Initiatives in Nepal

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the status of STEAM education in Nepal. I conducted a literature review focusing on document analysis for generating themes/categories of STEAM initiatives in Nepal from various sources such as websites, brochures, reports, and government publications. The major themes emerged from the analysis of documents were-- focus on integrated education, STEAM projects, STEAM-challenge, awareness to STEAM education, and academic program in STEAM education. I discussed the challenges of STEAM education followed by the conclusion

Attitudinal and cognitive beliefs of two preservice secondary mathematics teachers

© 2017, International Journal of Research in Education and Science. All rights reserved. The objective of this paper is to present attitudinal and cognitive beliefs of two preservice secondary mathematics teachers about teaching geometric transformations (GTs) using Geometer\u27s Sketchpad (GSP). The study comprised ten task-based interviews, a series of five each with two participants, senior undergraduate preservice mathematics teachers, at a medium-sized public university in the Rocky Mountain Region of the United States of America. Radical constructivist grounded theory (RCGT) was the theoretical framework used both to guide the study process as well as to integrate the research participants, the researcher, research process, and the data. The results of the study include in vivo categories of the participants\u27 beliefs associated with attitude and cognition of teaching GTs with GSP. These include developing confidence with GSP, efficiency of using GSP for teaching GTs, exploring GTs with GSP, conjecturing GTs using GSP, supporting and engaging students in learning GTs, and understanding GTs with GSP. Some pedagogical and policy implications of these categories are also addressed

Meanings, Dimensions, and Categories of Mathematics Teacher Beliefs: A Navigation through the Literature

This paper aimed to discuss the meanings, dimensions, and categories of teacher beliefs about teaching and learning mathematics. I reviewed the relevant literature about teacher beliefs in general, beliefs about mathematics, and beliefs about mathematics teaching and learning in particular. Based on the review of the literature, I outlined the meanings of teacher beliefs and conceptualized three dimensions of teacher beliefs – affective dimension, cognitive dimension, and pedagogical dimension. Then, I discussed three viewpoints to observe teacher beliefs – relational, institutional, and praxis lenses. I utilized these lenses to categorize belief constructs into three classes of beliefs about mathematics, teaching mathematics, and learning mathematics. These classes’ included-instrumentalist, constructivist, and integral beliefs. I addressed the pedagogical implications of these categorical beliefs in the end

Objectual beliefs of two preservice mathematics teachers about teaching geometric transformations with geometer’s sketchpad

The purpose of this paper is to present pre-service high school mathematics teachers’ objectual beliefs about the use of Geometer's Sketchpad (GSP) for teaching geometric transformations (GTs). The participants of the study were two senior undergraduate pre-service high school mathematics teachers at a public university in the United States of America. The study comprised a series of ten task-based interviews, five with each participant. I conceptualized radical constructivist grounded theory (RCGT) with five assumptions to guide the research process outlining the relationship between the researcher and participants, as well as emergent process of data construction, analysis, and interpretation. The results include three in vivo categories concerning GSP as an object of teaching GTs. The categories were – interface between algebra and geometry, the semantics of GTs with GSP, and syntactic of GTs with GSP. I addressed pedagogical implications of these categories at the end

A preservice mathematics teacher’s beliefs about teaching mathematics with technology

© 2015, International Journal of Research in Education and Science. All rights reserved. This paper analyzed a preservice mathematics teacher’s beliefs about teaching mathematics with technology. The researcher used five semi-structured task-based interviews in the problematic contexts of teaching fraction multiplications with JavaBars, functions and limits, and geometric transformations with Geometer’s Sketchpad, and statistical data with Excel Spreadsheet to generate data about the participant’s pedagogical-technological beliefs. An additional unstructured interview was conducted with the same participant after his practice teaching. The interview data were analyzed and interpreted in two layers-the first layer portrays the participant’s voice in his narratives and the second layer portrays researcher’s voice in terms of his interpretation of data and interconnection to literature. The analysis and interpretation generated seven major categories of beliefs-beliefs about teaching materials, teaching strategy, bridging activities, technological tools, mathematical concepts, and meanings, activities and transformation, and issues and challenges. Finally, the author discusses implications of the study

A Unified Theory of Mind-Brain Relationship: Is It Possible?

The mind -body relationship has vexed philosophers of mind for quite a long time. Different theories of mind have offered different points of view about the interaction between the two, but none of them seem free of ambiguities and questions. This paper attempts to use a mathematical model for mind -body rela- tionship. The model may generate some questions to think about this relationship from the viewpoint of operator theory

Images of Mathematics Held by Undergraduate Students

The purpose of this study was to explore images of mathematics held by undergraduate students and possible influencing factors. The image of mathematics in this study was conceptualized as the mental representations or views of mathematics as undergraduate students experienced during their academic journey through the interaction largely at school. Pierre Bourdieu’s construct of symbolic violence served as the theoretical lens to evaluate the students\u27 images of mathematics. The design of this study was explorative qualitative and interpretive. Semi-structured interview was used to generate data texts from three participants who were senior undergraduate students studying mathematics at an affiliated college of Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu. From the thematic analysis and interpretation of the textual data, four common themes emerged as images of mathematics held by the participants. These themes were – mathematics as difficult and abstract, as decontextualized, as mysterious subject, and as applicable in different fields. The influencing factors on the formation of these images were largely related to the curricular and pedagogical approaches from schools to university classes. These are conventional and disempowering methods of teaching, decontextualized curriculum and textbooks and other teaching learning resources, medium of instruction and nature of mathematics itself

Images of Mathematics Held by Undergraduate Students

The purpose of this study was to explore images of mathematics held by undergraduate students and possible influencing factors. The image of mathematics in this study was conceptualized as the mental representations or views of mathematics as undergraduate students experienced during their academic journey through the interaction largely at school. Pierre Bourdieu's construct of symbolic violence served as the theoretical lens to evaluate the students' images of mathematics. The design of this study was explorative qualitative and interpretive. Semi-structured interview was used to generate data texts from three participants who were senior undergraduate students studying mathematics at an affiliated college of Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu. From the thematic analysis and interpretation of the textual data, four common themes emerged as images of mathematics held by the participants. These themes were mathematics as difficult and abstract, as decontextualized, as mysterious subject, and as applicable in different fields. The influencing factors on the formation of these images were largely related to the curricular and pedagogical approaches from schools to university classes. These are conventional and disempowering methods of teaching, decontextualized curriculum and textbooks and other teaching learning resources, medium of instruction and nature of mathematics itself.

Feeling culture: The emotional experience of six early childhood educators while teaching in a cross-cultural context

This research uncovers the emotional experience of six US early childhood educators during a 3-week teaching experience at two preschools in Kathmandu, Nepal. The following research questions guided the study and data analysis: What emotions do early childhood educators experience while teaching in a cross-cultural context? How were these emotions related to a Western discourse of teaching young children? Ethnographic methods of data collection consisted of formal and informal interviews, focus groups, weekly journals, group blog with written text and photographs, and participant observation by the lead researcher. Analysis of the themes uncovered the following: (1) a discourse of the Privileged Westerner and Marginalized Other was related to the emotions of excitement and nervousness about teaching/helping young children in Nepal, and (2) the emotion of frustration with the educational practices of the Nepali schools was related to a national love for their own Western educational ideals