The Mathematical Arguments of Preservice Teachers in a Patterns Unit Over Time

• In Event: Learning and Instruction

Abstract

The written and oral work pre-service middle school teachers (PST) completed in the patterns unit of their required mathematics class is examined to determine whether these future teachers changed how they make mathematical arguments as the class progressed. To answer this question Toulmin (1958) and Systemic Functional Linguistics conjunction analyses are employed. As PSTs progress through their required mathematics coursework, the complexity of their arguments does increase, but they primarily use inductive warrants. PSTs also regularly omit conjunctions in written work about explicit mathematical objects but include written conjunctions when asked about generalized mathematical objects. These results suggest that how PST’s make mathematical arguments can be further developed to make conjunction use more explicit and warrant types more diverse.

Author

• Martha Makowski, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign