Friday

8:35 – 9:05 am

Session 8 – Contributed Reports

Marquis A

Developmental mathematics studentsŐ use of representations to describe the intercepts of linear functions.

Anne Cawley

This paper reports findings from a pilot study that investigated the way that six college students enrolled in a developmental workshop worked through a task of nine problems on linear functions. Specifically, I investigated two aspects, the order that students completed the problems and what sources of information the students used to find the requested features, and also the types of representations (symbolic, graphical, or numerical) students used to describe the intercepts of the function. Findings suggest that students have an overwhelming reliance on the graph of the linear function and that there is variation in the number of representations used to describe the intercepts (Single, Transitional, and Multi Users). Because the graphical representation is a preferred representation, it may be wise to build student knowledge from this representation, making connections to other representations. This study contributes to understanding the mathematical knowledge that developmental mathematics students bring to the classroom.

Paper

24

Marquis B

A case study of a mathematic teacher educatorŐs use of technology

Kevin Laforest

The use of technology in mathematics classrooms remains an important focus in mathematics education due to the proliferation of technology in society and a lag in the implementation of technology in classrooms. In this paper, I present data from clinical interviews with a mathematics teacher educator (MTE) and observations from that MTEŐs class in order to discuss his use of technology. Specifically, I describe three themes that emerged from the MTEŐs technology use and how they relate to his epistemological stance. These themes are: (a) his developing a classroom environment around the use of technology, (b) technology providing a precise and dynamic environment, and (c) his using technology to help engender studentsŐ mental imagery. Finally, I discuss how the ideas emerging from this paper can be helpful for the mathematics education community.

Paper

72

Marquis C

Example construction in the transition-to-proof classroom

Sarah Hanusch

Accurately constructing examples and counterexamples is an important component of learning how to write proofs. This study investigates how one instructor of a transition-to-proof course taught students to construct examples, and how her students reacted to the instruction.

Paper

100