Pre-Service Mathematic Teachers’ Knowledge of Students about the Algebraic Concepts

This study aims at evaluating pre-service primary school mathematics teachers’ ability to discuss and question thinking processes of students about the concepts of variable, equality and equation, analyzing their ability to predict student difficulties and misconceptions, and in this respect presenting their subject matter knowledge and possible misconceptions on the related topic. The study was conducted with 130 the pre-service teachers in their fourth year studying elementary school mathematics teaching. The data were collected through a questionnaire that consists of open-ended questions and clinical interviews. The data obtained were analyzed qualitatively. The study found that in general the pre-service teachers were inadequate in terms of knowledge of students’ about algebraic concepts, they had insufficient subject matter knowledge and they had misconceptions

A Mathematics Teacher Educator’s Feedback Affecting Teachers’ Design of Hypothetical Learning Trajectories for Teaching Patterns

This qualitative research presents how a mathematics teacher educator’s feedbacks to two lower secondary school mathematics teachers affects their design of hypothetical learning trajectories regarding teaching patterns and their teaching practice. The data comes from a web portal, which was designed as a professional development tool for mathematics teachers. The teachers communicated with a mathematics teacher educator online, and prepared lesson plans, as well as receiving feedback. After implementing their designs, they also uploaded teaching episodes to the web portal, after which they received feedback. We triangulated data that came from the lesson plans, mathematics teacher educator’s feedback and videos of teaching practice. The data was analysed within two lenses: the Knowledge Quartet and the Hypothetical Learning Trajectory. The findings reveal that through the feedback given by the mathematics teacher educator, the teachers substantially progressed in designing hypothetical learning trajectories and developed their professional knowledge, in particular regarding the foundation, transformation, and connection dimensions of the Knowledge Quartet

Development of preservice teachers' content knowledge in geometrical transformations: A teaching experiment

International audienceGeometrical transformations is one of the basic learning domains of geometry and mathematics teachers' content knowledge has a big impact on construction of middle school students' knowledge in this context. For this reason, the purpose of this study was to research preservice mathematics teachers' content knowledge and to design a teaching process including an appropriate scaffolding tool to provide participants to shift from informal thinking to formal thinking on geometrical transformations. According to results it was revealed that acetate could be designed as an effective scaffolding tool for developing the view of " bijective function " , exploring relations, and making generalizations regarding the geometric transformations

How a teacher professional development program influences students’ algebra performance? Reflections from a web-based platform

The main purpose of this study was to assess seventh-graders’ algebra performance when their teachers received professional development support regarding hypothetical learning trajectories through a web-based platform. Secondly, we aimed to investigate the relationship between student performance and the teachers’ professional development in teaching algebra. A mixed-method research paradigm was adopted into the study. Experimental research was conducted with nine experimental and nine control groups including 454 seven graders. The data came from a combined algebra (including open-ended and multiple-choice tasks) test and experimental group teachers’ teaching designs where the plans were entered to the web-based platform. Statistical methods were used to analyse the quantitative data, while descriptive methods were used to analyse the qualitative data. The results revealed that the experimental-group students (whose teachers received professional development support through the web-based platform) statistically outperformed compared to those in control groups. Besides, a relationship between was found between the experimental group teachers’ progress and algebra performance of their students

Spectroscopic study and numerical simulation of low-pressure radio-frequency capacitive discharge with argon downstream

In this study, the characteristic properties and plasma parameters of capacitive radio frequency (RF) argon (Ar) discharge and supplementary discharge at low pressure are investigated with optical emission spectroscopy (OES). The wavelengths of spectral lines from OES are obtained between 650-900 nm. Using OES lines and related experimental data, the electron temperatures for different RF power, flow, and measurement periods are determined. Eventually, the properties of plasma including the electron temperature are identified. In addition, the numerical modelling of the discharge parameters is carried out by using the "extended" fluid model for plasma, and consistency between numerical and experimental results is discussed