This article focuses on using simulations of practice in teacher education. We studied preservice teachers’ engagement with a popular simulations platform, which creates mixed-reality simulations of five digital avatars controlled by a single live interactor. Because simulations are only an approximation of real practice, our overarching goal was to understand how mathematical stereotypes might arise in simulated spaces. We used Discourse analysis to classify the stereotypes present and the EQUIP observation tool to understand how PTs made participation opportunities available. We found that the simulations might have perpetuated overtly racist and sexist stereotypes and that negatively stereotyped students were afforded lower-quality opportunities to participate. We discuss how to mitigate potential harm caused and offer guidance for redesigning more equitable and antiracist simulations. Our goal is to raise critical questions for our field around the use of simulations of practice.
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Liza Bondurant and Daniel Reinholz
Jeffrey Connelly and Pablo Garcia
Two teachers use homemade pendulums for their students to explore phase shift in sine curves. The use of Desmos’s Activity Builder enabled students to become mathematical explorers and supported their sense of mathematical agency.
Kathryn Early, K. Elizabeth Hammonds, Brea Ratliff, Mariya Rosenhammer, and W. Gary Martin
A high-leverage strategy first discussed more than 50 years ago, wait time has many benefits for both teachers and students yet is not used to its full potential. See how it can enhance your students’ mathematical discourse.
Ethan P. Smith, Jennifer Kelly, Susan Sappington, Kareemah Warren, and Amanda Jansen
Language is a conduit for communicating and understanding mathematical ideas. This article explores how we can use judicious telling to attend to students’ written and spoken literacy in mathematics.
Lidia Gonzalez
This method using the area of regular polygons inscribed in circles to approximate a value for pi is similar to the method used by Archimedes using circumferences.
Sheldon P. Gordon and Michael B. Burns
We introduce variations on the Fibonacci sequence such as the sequences where each term is the sum of the previous three terms, the difference of the previous two, or the product of the previous two. We consider the issue of the ratio of the successive terms in ways that reinforce key behavioral concepts of polynomials.
Victor Mateas
How trigonometry is used and portrayed differently in mathematics and physics textbooks highlights potential sources for student struggle, constraints on our trigonometry curriculum, and lessons learned when looking across STEM disciplines.
Ruthmae Sears, Jennifer Bay-Williams, James C. Willingham, and Amanda Cullen
Social and Emotional Learning and the Standards for Mathematical Practice have a mutually beneficial relationship and develop mathematically proficient and confident students.
Hanan Alyami
During a Desmos activity, students adjust the measures of angles in radians to reposition a laser and a mirror so the beam passes through three stationary targets. The Radian Lasers activity can be extended to simulate project-based learning.
