Despite their impact on undergraduate learners, few studies have investigated mathematics graduate teaching assistants’ (MGTAs) needs for professional development as they learn about teaching. In this study, we surveyed and interviewed MGTAs longitudinally as they progressed through their graduate programs. With surveys and interviews, we aimed to capture changes in MGTAs’ views of mathematics and teaching, whether they felt that they received adequate support, and what other support they feel they needed to grow as teachers. Using two phases of thematic analysis, we found several issues that interrupted MGTAs’ progress as teachers.
more »
« less
Teacher interrupted: How mathematics graduate teaching assistants (don’t) learn about teaching
Despite their impact on undergraduate learners, few studies have investigated mathematics graduate teaching assistants’ (MGTAs) needs for professional development as they learn about teaching. In this study, we surveyed and interviewed MGTAs longitudinally as they progressed through their graduate programs. With surveys and interviews, we aimed to capture changes in MGTAs’ views of mathematics and teaching, whether they felt that they received adequate support, and what other support they feel they needed to grow as teachers. Using two phases of thematic analysis, we found several issues that interrupted MGTAs’ progress as teachers.
more »
« less
- Award ID(s):
- 1744139
- PAR ID:
- 10111297
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Proceedings of the 43rd Conference of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education
- Volume:
- 2
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 97-104
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
null (Ed.)As the field of professional development for mathematics graduate students evolves, there is a need for research studies that examine how mathematics graduate students develop as teachers. This study aims to fill this gap in the research by studying mathematics graduate students’ experiences with teaching as they progress through their graduate programs. Mathematics graduate students were recruited from a large university mathematics department. They were responded to surveys and were interviewed semi-annually for two or more years. We analyzed their responses using thematic analysis and a framework that captured their development as teachers. In this report, we describe a framework for teachers’ development and context and methods of the study. We present findings on how the framework elucidated mathematics graduate students’ development as teachers and illustrate obstacles to their development.more » « less
-
Otten, S. (Ed.)The need for research-based professional development programs for mathematics graduate students is significant, yet few studies have investigated their development as teachers. This study aims to fill this gap in the research by studying mathematics graduate students’ experiences with teaching as they progress through their graduate programs. Participants responded to surveys and were interviewed semi-annually for two or more years. We analyzed their responses using thematic analysis and a framework that captured their development as teachers. In this report, we describe the developmental stages for teaching and context and methods of the study. We present general findings on the experiences that mathematics graduate students did not move past a certain developmental stage and we present specific findings about one mathematics graduate student who experienced significant growth in her teaching.more » « less
-
Recent scholarship has explored mathematical demands faced by mathematics teacher educators and ways to support their development, but little attention has been given to the basic question of how mathematics teacher educators think about content knowledge for teaching. Knowing what they think could inform efforts to support them. Our analysis reveals that some think about mathematical knowledge for teaching as an independent, abstracted resource to be taught and learned in relative isolation from teaching, while others think about it as dynamic, situated work. We argue that this key difference matters for how they work with teachers. Further, our analysis reveals that their thinking about both teaching and justice interacts with their thinking about mathematical knowledge for teaching and that their thinking in these other two domains can be a resource for supporting their mathematical development.more » « less
-
Hodgen, J.; Geraniou, E.; Bolondi, G.; & Ferretti, F. (Ed.)Stakeholders agree that the mathematical education of teachers needs to focus on mathematical knowledge for teaching, but the practice-based nature of this knowledge poses challenges for mathematics teacher educators — for understanding it, developing tasks that maintain its integrity in practice, and teaching it to teachers in ways that meaningfully support their learning to teach. We know little, however, about how mathematics teacher educators conceptualize the teaching that knowledge is to support. Our analysis reveals that thinking develops from a view of teaching as straightforward, where aspects can be treated in isolation, to a view of it as requiring focused attention while maintaining mutual regard for the whole. This difference has implications for how mathematics teacher educators understand specialized mathematical knowledge and for how to support their understanding and teaching of it.more » « less
An official website of the United States government

