Document Type

Article

Language

eng

Format of Original

42 p.

Publication Date

4-30-2010

Publisher

American Educational Research Association

Source Publication

AERA Online Paper Repository

Abstract

In this study we examined the relationship between 18 pre-service middle school teachers’ own ability to use algebraic thinking to solve problems and their ability to recognize and interpret the algebraic thinking of middle school students. We assessed the pre-service teachers’ own algebraic thinking by examining their solutions and explanations to multiple algebra-based tasks posed during a semester-long mathematics content course. We assessed their ability to recognize and interpret the algebraic thinking of students in two ways. The first was by analyzing the preservice teachers’ ability to interpret students’ written solutions to open-ended algebra-based tasks. The second was by analyzing their ability to plan, conduct, and analyze algebraic thinking (AT) interviews of middle school students during a concurrent semester-long, field-based education class. We used algebraic habits of mind as a framework to identify the algebraic thinking that pre-service teachers exhibited in their own problem solving, and we asked students to use them to analyze the algebraic thinking of middle school students. The data revealed that pre-service teachers’ AT abilities varied across different features of algebraic thinking. In particular, their ability to justify a rule was the weakest of seven AT features. The ability to recognize and interpret the algebraic thinking of students was strongly correlated with the strength of the pre-service teachers’ own algebraic thinking. Implications for mathematics teacher education are discussed.

Comments

Accepted version. AERA Online Paper Repository, (April 30, 2010). © 2010 Leigh A. van den Kieboom, Marta T. Magiera and John C. Moyer. Used with permission

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