Search results for "teachers' and students' practices at university level"
showing 9 items of 9 documents
Exploration of new post-secondary mathematics teachers' experiences: preliminary results of a narrative inquiry
2018
International audience; This paper reports on a pilot study that has taken place during the winter semester of 2017, for a larger project whose goal is to understand the process of becoming a mathematics teacher at post-secondary level. With very few information from the literature on this process at this specific level, this pilot study acts as an exploration of the issues and reality the new teachers face. To do so, we conducted a narrative inquiry with three new post-secondary mathematics teachers who were interviewed on a regular basis during a semester. Those interviews provided an insight into the new teachers' experiences by pointing out themes that are relevant to them. We also came…
Tasks for enriching the understanding of the concept of linear span
2018
International audience; The concept of linear span is one of the first abstract notions that students encounter in a course on Linear Algebra. Using the theoretical construct of concept image and concept definition (Tall & Vinner, 1981) along with observations about teaching and learning Linear Algebra, we present two tasks designed to enrich students' concept image regarding linear span. These tasks could be included in a problem workshop of an introductory university course on Linear Algebra. Each task is carefully created and/or selected so as to foster the ground for potential conflict factors to arise and be confronted. A preliminary evaluation shows that the tasks are well received by…
Seminar groups as part of first-semester mathematics teaching: What did the students learn?
2018
International audience; In this study, the learning encouraged by teaching activities in a small-group setting was investigated through the analysis of students' responses to survey and interview questions. The results indicate that the students perceived an increased ability to communicate mathematics in written form, but to a lesser extent developed their ability to discuss mathematics and build conceptual understanding.
Student Partners in Task Design in a computer medium to promote Foundation students' learning of mathematics
2018
International audience; A team consisting of three mathematics education teacher-researchers, four former Foundation students (called Student Partners, SPs), and two analytic assistants worked together to produce mathematical tasks in a computer medium for the mathematical learning of current Foundation students (FSs). We have explored the collaboration between the SPs and researchers, the processes and outcomes of task design, and the contribution of the collaboration to tutorial teaching of FSs. We seek insight into the learning of all concerned of mathematics, mathematics teaching, task design and personal-professional development. The project is ongoing. Here we introduce the project an…
A model for instructional design in mathematics implemented in teacher education
2018
International audience; This paper presents a model for instructional design in mathematics and reports from student teachers' experimentation with it in secondary school. The model is framed within the theory of didactical situations in mathematics. It contributes to the research field through the notion of an epistemological model, which provides an enhanced understanding of the stage of ‘conception and a priori analysis' of didactical engineering. Findings show how the model is instrumental in creating student teachers' awareness of the impact of the milieu on the nature of the knowledge developed by the pupils.
The complexity of knowledge construction in a classroom setting
2018
International audience; We study a class of mathematics education MA students in an introductory course on Chaos and Fractals, as they grapple with the Sierpinksi triangle, and in particular with the apparent paradox that its area equals 0, while its perimeter is infinitely long. For this purpose, we network an approach for investigating the construction of knowledge in small groups with one for examining how ideas and ways of reasoning function-as-if-shared in a classroom. Our results show complexities: (i) small group work and whole class discussions mutually influence each other; (ii) ideas may function-as-if-shared in the whole class even if the majority of students have not previously …
Comparing male and female students’ self-efficacy and self-regulation skills in two undergraduate mathematics course contexts
2018
International audience; Students' efficacy beliefs have a positive influence on students' academic achievement and retention, especially for female students. These beliefs are closely linked to students' ability to regulate their learning. In this quantitative study, students' self-efficacy and self-regulation of learning are compared in two university mathematics courses that differ in content but also in their pedagogical setting: one is a more traditional lecture-based course, and the other course is taught with the Extreme Apprenticeship (XA) method. The analysis is based on the same cohort of students in the two contexts (N=91). The results suggest that students have higher self-effica…
Students' usage patterns of video recorded lectures in an undergraduate mathematics course
2018
International audience; It is customary for some universities to offer recordings of live lectures to students. Whether this improves learning and academic performance is debated in the literature. As with most technology, correct usage can lead to increased academic performance, but there are also usage patterns that can be considered counter productive, especially for learning mathematics. In order to investigate patterns in students' usage of such online recorded live lectures, we analyze log files from a server holding the recordings of an undergraduate mathematics course. This poster presents results from the statistical analysis and discusses some of the usage patterns found in light …
A study of transitions in an undergraduate mathematics program
2018
International audience; In this paper, we introduce an in-progress study of the transitions students face as they advance in their mathematics courses. Previous work has discussed the changes that occur in the transition from high school to university. With regards to the knowledge students are expected to learn, however, significant similarities have been noted: to do well in introductory university courses, students can learn to solve a particular subset of tasks through routinized techniques, with limited awareness of the supporting mathematical theory. In contrast, students in advanced courses are required to work with and on that theory. The first stage of our project aims to better un…