PME-NA

Middle Grades Teachers’ Sense Making of Invariance in the Context of Referent Unit

• In Event: Rational Numbers and Proportional Reasoning

Description

In this study, we examined how middle school teachers make sense of invariance in the context of referent unit. We collected data from a professional development session in which teachers explored rational number tasks through the lens of invariance. Our findings indicate that the teachers in this study discussed the idea of invariance (‘staying the same’) with respect to referent unit in various ways. Additionally, we found that their interpretations of invariance in the context of a referent unit task seemed to support them in unpacking the task, providing valid explanations, and even offering different kinds of generalization to the situation. Implications for professional development and teacher education are discussed.

Authors

• Gal Gili Nagar, UMass Dartmouth

• Chandra Hawley Orrill, Rethink Learning Labs

• Rachael Eriksen Brown, Penn State Abington

• Kun Wang, Rethink Learning Labs