Thesis (Ph. D.)--Illinois State University, 1996. / Title from title page screen, viewed May 26, 2006. Dissertation Committee: Jane O. Swafford (chair), John A. Dossey, Roger P. Day, Michael Marsalli, Jeffrey J. Walczyk. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 131-138) and abstract. Also available in print.

Thesis (M.Ed. (Education)) - Rhodes University, 2009. / A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education.

Thesis (M. Ed. (Mathematics Education)) --University of Limpopo, 2017 / Sarton (1936) stated that mathematics has grown so large for a single mind to grasp. Mack (1961) attributes that phenomenon by claiming that mathematics differs from science in that it keeps on adding new concepts to existing ones, whereas in science there is reduction of concepts. This continuing growth makes it impossible for an individual to study mathematics as a whole (Krantz, 2010). Van Bendegem (2009, p. 137) calls the mathematics world a “mad world”. Recently, Ellerton (2014) compared mathematics to a growing tree. A number of challenges arise out of the observations made above. Is the mathematics that is taught in secondary schools an appropriate reflection of the mathematics that is out there today? Is an individual an appropriate embodiment of a secondary mathematics teacher? In the mist of these and many other questions, this study locates itself in the second question and investigated the notion of an embodiment of a secondary mathematics teacher. The main research question that was pursued was ‘How adequate is an individual as an embodiment of a secondary mathematics teacher?’ This question should be understood and interrogated in the context of Festinger’s (1962) dissonance cognitive theory that also serves as the theoretical framework for the study. The expectations of a secondary mathematics teacher do not fit in with an individual’s capacity to embody those. Grounded theory (Glaser, Strauss & Beer, 1967) was used to generate and develop what Elliot and Higgins (2012) called a substantive theory. This was a desktop grounded theory study and data was collected from existing literature of published journals and books. Since the use of documents is recommended as one of the qualitative data collection methods in grounded theory (Strauss & Corbin, 1990), the documents served as primary data where only a few that were relevant to the issues discussed were selected (Breckenridge & Jones, 2009). Content and thematic analyses procedures were used. Content analysis assisted to organise data according to various eras, tracing the growth in mathematics education and mathematics content, comparing them to a mathematics teacher of different eras, which assisted in bringing the answer to the research question posed (Bowen, 2009). Thematic analysis was used to identify commonalities and differences with regard to the notion of a teacher in various eras (Fereday & Muir-Cochrane, 2006). The findings revealed that the notion of a secondary mathematics teacher of the current era is completely not a suitable embodiment of a secondary mathematics teacher. The current notion of an embodiment of a secondary mathematics teacher is seriously challenged by this ever growing subject. Secondary mathematics is so large for an individual to acclimatise with (Sarton, 1936), and there seems to be a need for more than an individual to ensure that mathematics is well taught and learned by learners. It is recommended that other studies should be undertaken to determine as to how many individuals can constitute a composite suitable to embody the requirements of an ideal secondary mathematics teacher.

This quasi-experimental study, utilizing quantitative and qualitative descriptive methods, examined the sex-egalitarian attitudes of secondary mathematics teachers from the Ft. Worth Independent School District. A video tape, Women in the Workplace, was used as a training intervention to test the effectiveness of professional development training in altering the mathematics teachers' sex-egalitarian attitudes towards female employment. Information on the video presented seven jobs that provide opportunities for female students in the science, engineering, and technology fields that are considered nontraditional jobs for females. Subjects completed 19 Employment Role domain questions on the King and King (1993) Sex-Role Egalitarianism Scale. A one-way ANOVA was applied to the data to test for a significant difference in the means of the control group, who did not see the video, and the experimental group that viewed the video. Findings concluded that there was no significant difference in the sex equalitarian mean scores of the control group and the experimental group. The research indicated that it takes an intensive and prolonged training period to produce a significant change in people's attitudes. This study supports the research on length of training needed to change sex egalitarian attitudes of classroom teachers. There were data collected on four demographic areas that included gender, age, ethnicity, and years of teaching experience. A two-way ANOVA was applied to four demographic variables to test for interaction and main effect. A significant difference was found between the sex-egalitarian attitudes of male and female mathematics teachers' responses. There were no significant differences found in the sex egalitarian attitudes of secondary mathematics teachers when categorized by levels of age, ethnicity, and years of teaching experience. The information in this study should interest and benefit teachers, parents, students, administrators, and industry leaders.

The main purpose of the study was to understand preservice secondary mathematics teachers&rsquo / pedagogical content knowledge of composite and inverse functions. The study was conducted with three preservice secondary mathematics teachers in Graduate School of Education at Bilkent University. The instruments of the study were qualitative in nature and in four different types of data forms: observations, interviews, documents, and audiovisual materials. Observation data came from fieldnotes by conducting an observation of lessons participants taught at Private Bilkent High School. Interview data came from the transcriptions of semi-structured interviews. Document data came from survey of function knowledge, journal writings, vignettes, and lesson plans. Audiovisual data came from the examination of the videotape of the lessons participants taught. The findings reveal that preservice secondary mathematics teachers&rsquo / knowledge levels in components of pedagogical content knowledge were not at the desired levels and also they experienced difficulty while integrating that knowledge. The results of the study indicate that teacher education should provide courses that cover the content relevant to students in order to assure both depth and breadth in subject matter knowledge of the preservice teachers. Moreover, the activities which mimics the classroom cases and assures the integration of knowledge components like vignettes would be used in teacher education programs. Results can inform educational practices, and reforms in Turkey, and provide a basis for further research, with increased pedagogical content knowledge as the ultimate goal.

The shift towards collegiality is a new setting for many teachers. Most teachers work alone, in isolation from their colleagues and collegial collaboration requires organisational structures. The aim of the study is to describe and analyse upper secondary mathematics teachers’ collective practice,developed in a professional development initiative. This study is a case study and the empirical data is generated through observations and an interview of a group of four teachers at a school who met on a weekly basis throughout a term. Their discussions focused on the mathematical concept of slope in a setting of learning study. This thesis is the case of when mathematics teachers focus discussions on slope and draws on Wenger’s Communities of Practice Perspective, as a unitof analysis, and addresses the question: What are the characteristics of practice when upper secondary mathematics teachers focus discussions on slope in the setting of a learning study? The analysis accounts for characteristics of the aspects of practice, through the coherence of mutual engagement, joint enterprise and shared repertoire in the community of practice. The teachers are engaged around finding small changes in their teaching that could give major effect in students learning. They negotiate what the students need to know in order to understand the relation between Δy and Δx. The characteristic of practice is a conceptual mapping of the concept of slope. It reveals students’ partial understanding of related concepts due to how they were given meaning through previous teaching. The conceptual mapping of slope goes back as far as to the student’s partial understanding of the meaning of subtraction. However, what emerges is in relation to the teachers’ experience of avoiding students’ difficulties with negative difference when teaching slope. It turns out to be a negotiation and a renegotiation of teaching slope for instrumental understanding or conceptual understanding. An overall characteristic of practice is that it develops in a present teaching culture.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-12-23T14:01:46Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Thais Leal da Cruz Silva.pdf: 3736864 bytes, checksum: 897ad6d3bad96489ee68a426cb55f256 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-04-08 / This masters thesis, focusing on mathematics education, is linked to the Graduate Education Program, of the Education Center at Federal University of Espírito Santo - Brasil (UFES). The study investigated conceptions, memories and career choice of undergraduate pre-service secondary mathematics teachers from the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Espírito Santo (Ifes) - Brazil in Cachoeiro de Itapemirim campus. The studies of Ernest, Gómez Chacón, Lorenzato, Bridge, Santos, Santos-Wagner, and Thompson, among others offered theoretical support for this work. These studies show how much relevant is to value the conceptions of teachers and students relative to mathematics, and how it can interfere with the training, learning and performance of these individuals, in the environment in which they live. We followed a class of the undergraduate pre-service secondary mathematics teacher education course for a year, between the second and fourth period of the course. The study methodology was qualitative and adopted features of ethnographic research. The gathering and the production of data were performed by classroom observations, conversations, interviews, questionnaires and tasks proposed to undergraduates. Furthermore, we gave constantly feedback to the students to confirm data recorded and interpretations with them. The study showed that participants exhibited more than one conception about mathematics and furnished cues that differentiated their thoughts about mathematics and mathematics teaching. We noted that experiences with mathematics influence the undergraduates conceptions about this discipline and pedagogical aspects, as well as the professional choice. The teachers, the kinds of classes that students experienced, the social and family environment were important elements in the individual formation and conceptions about mathematics and mathematic teaching. The participants showed mathematics conceptions and study habits different in relation to the mathematics studied in basic education and college. The research process and its constant feedback contributed to improve the undergraduates knowledge about themselves, and for some students to become self-conscious about how they have been dedicating to the undergraduate secondary mathematics teacher course / Este trabalho de mestrado, com foco na educação matemática, vincula-se ao Programa de Pós-Graduação em Educação do Centro de Educação da Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo. O estudo investigou concepções, memórias e escolha profissional de licenciandos em matemática, do Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia do Espírito Santo (Ifes), no campus de Cachoeiro de Itapemirim. Os estudos de Ernest, Gómez Chacón, Lorenzato, Ponte, Santos, Santos-Wagner, e Thompson, dentre outros, ofereceram aportes teóricos para este trabalho. Estes estudos mostram o quanto é relevante valorizar concepções de professores e alunos, em relação à matemática e o quanto isso pode interferir na formação, aprendizagem e atuação desses indivíduos no ambiente em que estudam, aprendem e vivem. Acompanhamos uma turma do curso de licenciatura em matemática durante um ano, entre o segundo e o quarto período do curso. A metodologia do estudo teve natureza qualitativa e adotou recursos da pesquisa do tipo etnográfica. A coleta e a produção de dados foram realizadas por meio de observações de aulas, conversas, entrevistas, questionários e tarefas propostas aos licenciandos. Além disso, realizamos momentos de retorno da pesquisa para confirmar dados e interpretações com os participantes. Em nosso estudo, percebemos que os participantes exibiam mais de uma concepção sobre a matemática e forneciam pistas que diferenciavam seus pensamentos, a respeito da matemática e de seu ensino. Notamos que experiências com a matemática influenciam concepções dos licenciandos sobre a disciplina e seus aspectos pedagógicos, assim como a escolha profissional. Os professores, os tipos de aulas que os alunos vivenciaram, o ambiente social e familiar foram elementos importantes na formação do indivíduo e nas suas concepções, a respeito de matemática e seu ensino. Os participantes apresentaram concepções e hábitos de estudos distintos, em relação à matemática estudada na educação básica e na faculdade. O processo de pesquisa e o constante retorno aos participantes contribuíram para que os licenciandos se conhecessem melhor e para que alguns alunos se conscientizassem a respeito do quanto estão se dedicando para o curso de licenciatura

This research seeks to investigate the influence of lesson study on preservice secondary mathematics teachers' view of self as mathematics expert. The study acknowledges the commonly held belief that prospective mathematics teachers have that they know and understand secondary mathematics. The purpose in engaging the preservice teachers in lesson study is to dislodge this belief. In particular, this research report focuses on one preservice teacher and her experiences during lesson study. Using the data collected, the researcher reports on the baseline beliefs that the preservice teacher held toward her knowledge of secondary mathematics, her mathematical experiences during the actual lesson study phase of the research and the final status of her beliefs in relation to her secondary mathematics understanding. After assessing the preservice teacher's beliefs, the report focuses on the moves the preservice teacher makes to protect her identity as a knower of mathematics. The report details how the researcher probed the subject's views through a follow-up interview. The researcher discovered during the follow-up interview that the subject was finally able to admit her lack of mathematical knowledge and her desire to not be seen as 'dumb' in front of the interviewer. The implications of the study suggest that teacher educators should be sensitive to preservice secondary teachers' perceptions of their mathematical knowledge and teacher educators should watch for the moves preservice teachers make to shift conversation away from mathematics topics.

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