This study investigated the extent to and ways in which attention to students mathematical thinking was evident in the written lesson plans or lesson planning process of ten pre-service secondary mathematics teachers at various points during their teacher education program: prior to and immediately after participation in a course (the Teaching Lab) that emphasized students mathematical thinking as a key element of planning, during teachers first semester of their field experience as they planned lessons in their actual practice of teaching, and near the end of the first semester of their field experience as they planned lessons on demand and for university assignments.
With respect to learning from the Teaching Lab, the study shows that the teachers demonstrated significant growth on pre to post course measures in their ability to attend to students thinking when planning a lesson on demand and for a university assignment. Furthermore, teachers continued to be able to apply these ideas when planning on demand and for university assignments several months later.
When investigating whether or not teachers would apply the ideas they had learned when planning in their own practice, the study suggests three findings. First, teachers attention to students thinking when planning lessons that used tasks with a high level of cognitive demand was not significantly different from their planning for a lesson on demand or the lesson plan they produced for the Teaching Lab assignment. Furthermore, teachers were more likely to attend to students thinking when planning a lesson that used a high-level task compared to a lesson that used a low-level task. Second, for some teachers, written lesson plans significantly under-represented their attention to students thinking in their planning process. Finally, the study suggests that support from the mentor teacher and/or university supervisor may be an important factor in determining whether or not the teacher applies their knowledge of attention to students thinking to their planning in practice.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PITT/oai:PITTETD:etd-12082006-093355 |
| Date | 29 January 2007 |
| Creators | Hughes, Elizabeth Koopman |
| Contributors | Mary Kay Stein, Ellen Ansell, Gaea Leinhardt, Margaret S Smith |
| Publisher | University of Pittsburgh |
| Source Sets | University of Pittsburgh |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-12082006-093355/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Pittsburgh or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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