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The COVID-19-induced closure of schools significantly impacted the field experiences of students enrolled in teacher preparation programs. We addressed this ongoing challenge by adapting an early field experience model for secondary teachers that shifted online mid-semester. The University Teaching Experience model deploys a cohort of preservice secondary mathematics teachers to support instruction in an introductory university mathematics course. When the designated mathematics course moved online, the preservice teachers were able to continue their field experience by facilitating small-group discussions in virtual breakout rooms. To understand the perspectives of the stakeholders participating in the online field experience, we conducted semi-structured one-on-one interviews with the preservice teachers, the mathematics course instructor, and the university mathematics students involved in this setting. Early results indicated that the preservice teachers were highly valued by both the course instructor and the undergraduate mathematics students. Additionally, the preservice teachers appreciated the opportunity to continue their field experience, albeit in the more limited format. We present themes which emerged from preservice teacher interviews and share guidance for teacher preparation program faculty interested in trying an online early field experience while access to K-12 classrooms is limited.
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This content will become publicly available on November 10, 2025
Creating student autonomy and building functional reasoning through an entrepreneurial design challenge.
At the core of engaging students in mathematics is having them use their mathematical knowledge to solve personally relevant and authentic problems. We have created entrepreneurial-based design challenges (Confrey, et al., 2019) that engage students in rich mathematics. In this paper, we report on 30 students participating in one such challenge. Students were tasked with designing a business that helps users change unwanted behaviors or develop new healthy habits through tracking and visualizing their progress. We present results to show how the challenge provided opportunities for student autonomy in their solutions and in the mathematics they utilized.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2048332
- PAR ID:
- 10600398
- Editor(s):
- Kosko, K W; Caniglia, J; Courtney, S A; Zolfaghari, M; Morris, G A
- Publisher / Repository:
- Proceedings of the forty-sixth annual meeting of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education
- Date Published:
- ISBN:
- 978-1-7348057-3-4
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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