Teachers' Abilities to Reason About Fixed Numbers of Variable-Sized Parts

• In Event: Poster Session 1
  In Poster Session: Research in Mathematics Teaching and Learning

Abstract

In this study, we focused on the knowledge resources 32 middle school teachers used to reason about one mathematics task. We were interested in whether the teachers would use reasoning that considers a fixed number of variable-sized parts or whether they would rely on other knowledge resources. Our findings indicated that teachers who did use fixed number of variable parts reasoning were supportive of the approach taken in the task, whereas teachers who did not use this reasoning were often confused by the student’s approach and that several relied on overlaying algorithmic explanations to make sense of the situation.

Authors

• Chandra H. Orrill, University of Massachusetts - Dartmouth

• Jinsook Frances Park, University of Massachusetts - Dartmouth

• John E. Millett, University of Massachusetts - Dartmouth

• James P. Burke, University of Massachusetts - Dartmouth