Volume 117 (2024): Issue 9 (Sep 2024)
Journal Issue
Applying High School Lessons in College
Nicholas Wong
This department provides a space for current and past PK–12 teachers of mathematics to connect with other teachers of mathematics through their stories that lend personal and professional support.
A Collective Reflection for Change Framework: Structured Support for Mathematics Teacher Educator Practice Transformation
Robin Keturah Anderson, Sara Donaldson, Melissa Troudt, Courtney K. Baker, and Dawn M. Woods
This article reports on a framework for collective professional learning and its influence on the development of four early-career mathematics teacher educators as they work to transform their practice. The Collective Reflection for Change (CRC) framework centers on a shared referent to orient collaborative noticing and wondering. Findings from an initial pilot of the CRC framework indicate that integrating a structured framework for collective reflection grounded in the use of a shared referent within the practice of noticing and wondering can support groups of professionals, regardless of familiarity or relationship, as they participate in dialogue around transforming practice.
Combining Pedagogies to Teach Problem Solving
Diane Kue
Ear to the Ground features voices from several corners of the mathematics education world.
Cultivating K-8 Teachers’ Critical Consciousness Through Social Justice Mathematical Modeling: The Teacher Pay Task
Megan H. Wickstrom, Christian Lopez-Mercado, and Hyunyi Jung
Social justice mathematical modeling is powerful in helping teachers build awareness of social issues, critique existing systems, and engage in rich mathematical reasoning. In this article, we document a task in which 28 preservice teachers (PSTs) explored if teacher pay is fair and how to define “fair” mathematically. Through qualitative analysis of PSTs’ reflections, we studied the effectiveness of the task through the lens of critical consciousness. Twenty-six of the participants reported developing social and mathematical agency with respect to the task. Because the task related to PSTs’ lived experiences, it allowed them to examine their assumptions about teacher pay, empowered them to use mathematics to explore different perspectives, and helped them envision ways they could enact change.
Editors in a Dangerous Time
Michael D. Steele
Families and Teachers Doing Mathematics Tasks Together: Considering Funds of Knowledge and Positioning
Maura Varley Gutiérrez, Carolina Napp-Avelli, Beatriz Quintos, Fany Salazar, Erin Turner, and Marta Civil
In this article, we explore the power relationships and positioning that occurred between caregivers and teachers who engaged in mathematics tasks as a part of a year-long project involving workshops. Specifically, we explore the shifts in power and positioning that occurred when the tasks were grounded in the caregivers’ funds of knowledge, in contrast to the positioning that occurred during problem-solving tasks that were not. Our analysis indicates that using funds of knowledge in mathematics has the potential to create collaborative and not hierarchical relationships between caregivers and teachers. This result has implications for the mathematics classrooms of multilingual learners.
GPS: Using Benchmarks to Expand the Number System
Daniel K. Siebert and Amy J. Tanner
Growing Problem Solvers provides four original, related, classroom-ready mathematical tasks, one for each grade band. Together, these tasks illustrate the trajectory of learners' growth as problem solvers across their years of school mathematics.
