:: COLLOQUIUM

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Dr. Steven Williams
Editor
Journal for research in Mathematics Education

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Dr. Duane Cooper
Morehouse College

Professor Cooper introduces the election method of cumulative voting, explaining claims that it can be more fair to the interests of minority populations. He examines the fairness of the method to groups of a population by comparing the electoral potential of cumulative voting to the representation deemed fair by apportionment methods. He examines fairness to individuals in a population by first discussing the need for and development of a spatial model of cumulative voting and then evaluating and comparing misrepresentation in the model. He closes with discussion of the potential for connections to grade school mathematics and use in interdisciplinary projects.

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Dr. David Pimm
University of Alberta

In my talk, I propose to explore and exemplify the increasing application of phenomena, concepts and methods of discourse analysis (seen as a sub-domain of linguistics, though other perceptions are also possible) to problems of and enquiries into mathematics education. My intent is, in some sense, to survey a small field that is in the process of emerging, thereby both drawing attention to it and helping perhaps, in a small, mid-wifely way, to bring it about. Along the way during my talk, I will strive to make some comments about the general process of field emergence, with this area chosen as exemplar.

In particular, I will provide three empirical written foci for discussion:

• the example of grade 10 student write-ups of a mathematical investigation;
• the example of a mathematics textbook series for the middle school;
• some samples of younger students’ written work, arising from their writing their own chapters for a grade-four textbook.
  

Room 2121 Benjamin Building
11:00 am – 12:00 pm
with discussion and complimentary lunch to follow


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Anthony Eamon Kelly
George Mason University

This talk will describe some recent efforts to link research in cognitive neuroscience with work in mathematics education. The role of design research methods in this effort will be noted.

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Friday, March 10, 2006
Preparing Mathematics Educators to Infuse Issues of Equity into their Mathematics Methods Courses

Room 2121 Benjamin Building
11:00 am – 12:00 pm
with discussion and complimentary lunch to follow

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Dorothy White
University of Georgia

This presentation describes a doctoral course in mathematics education designed to prepare future teacher educators to infuse issues of equity and diversity into mathematics methods courses. In this course students: (1) read literature on equity and diversity in mathematics education, (2)
examined projects that attempted to infuse equity and diversity issues into teacher education programs, and (3) identified various pedagogical tools such as videos, articles, and resource books to use in mathematics methods courses. Dr. White will share student reactions and concerns during the course and ask audience member to give feedback on improving the course, to share what they currently accomplish in their graduate programs, and to identify next steps for preparing the next generation of mathematics teacher educators.


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Friday, February 24, 2006

Room 2121 Benjamin Building
11:00 am

Diane Briars
Prime Plus Senior Program Officer
Pittsburgh Public Schools, Pennsylvania

Room 2121 Benjamin Building
11:00 am – 12:00 pm
with discussion and complimentary lunch to follow

By

Janine Remillard
University of Pennsylvania

In the current period of Standards-based reform in mathematics education, practitioners and policy makers are turning to curriculum materials to promote change in content and pedagogy of mathematics education. Researchers seeking to understand the impact of these materials on educational practices and student learning have undertaken a variety of studies of teacher’s use of curriculum materials and their influence on teaching. In her talk, Janine Remillard will discuss and critique the trends in this body of research, focusing in particular on the conceptual and theoretical questions underlying them, and will present a framework for guiding future studies and policy decision.


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Friday, January 24, 2006
A Revised Theorization of the Relationship Between Teachers' Conceptions of Mathematics and Its Teaching

Room 2121 Benjamin Building
11:00 - 12:00 with discussion and free lunch to follow

By

Ron Hoz and Geula Weizman
Ben-Gurion University, Israel

We tested the relationship between the conceptions of mathematics and the conceptions about mathematics teaching among Israeli high school mathematics teachers. The nature of that relationship had been outlined in the literature but it was tested empirically only among very small of teachers. We examined that relationship among 165 mathematics teachers in a whole region in Israel, using a questionnaire that was constructed so to reflect the “official” (expert) conceptions about mathematics and its teaching. The hypothesized relationship was found to hold only for a quarter of the teachers, and a different relationship among the others. This finding nullified certain assumptions that underlie the study of conceptions in mathematics education and implied a revision in the theorization of “conception” and a subsequent expansion of the relationship between conceptions about mathematics and its teaching.
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Friday, September 9, 2005
Math Course Issues for Entering College Students and Initiatives 2005-2008

Room 2121 Benjamin Building
Time Change: 10:30 - 11:30 with discussion and free lunch to follow

By

William Schildknecht
University of Maryland

Be it freshman (first time college students) or transfer students, choosing a math course based on goals and past experience can be a challenge. I plan to talk about some of the issues that enter into the decision. Included will be how UMCP determines an overall math eligibility, how advisors assist with the course selection and factors which help with success in that course.


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Friday, September 16, 2005
"So One Question Leads to Another" Using Mathematics To Develop A Pedagogy of Questioning

Room 2121 Benjamin Building
11:00 - 12:00 with discussion and free lunch to follow

By

Eric Gutstein, Ph.D.
University of Illinois-Chicago

A pedagogy of questioning is an aspect of teaching mathematics for social justice; this has the goals that students develop mathematical power but also sociopolitical consciousness, a sense of agency, and the orientation toward mathematics that it can be a tool for understanding and changing the social world. I will present a brief overview of social justice mathematics, then based on a study of my seventh-grade Chicago classroom, describe a pedagogy of questioning-what it is, how can one create it, and what is the role of mathematics.


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Friday, September 23, 2005
What Could It Mean to Make and Probe a Hypothesis in Research on Instruction? The Place of Proof in Geometry as a Case in Point

Room 2121 Benjamin Building
11:00 - 12:00 with discussion and free lunch to follow

By

Francis Fennell, Ph.D.
NCTM President-Elect

What are the major activities that officers, committees, and professional staff of NCTM are working on now, and what are the initiatives on the agenda for the next several years? Dr. Fennell will assume the NCTM presidency for two years in April 2006, so his ideas and vision will shape activity of the organization. At this special meeting of the Maryland graduate student/faculty seminar, he will outline his ideas and respond to suggestions and questions.


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Friday, October 14, 2005
Application of Case Methods to "Mathematics in the Elementary School"

Room 2121 Benjamin Building
11:00 - 12:00 with discussion and free lunch to follow

By

Christy Graybeal
MAC-MTL Fellow

The standards of practice in mathematics teacher education evolve continually in response to new developments in research on learning and teaching. Specifically, the theories of constructivism and situated cognition have dramatically influenced the ways in which we help prepare teachers to face the complex job of teaching. In recent years, there has been an influx of promising new ideas about the use of cases and case methods in teacher education as a way to promote the development of a reflective stance, problem-solving skills, and pedagogical content knowledge. This presentation shows how these ideas might be applied to EDCI 453: Mathematics in the Elementary School.

By

Geoffrey Birky
MAC-MTL Fellow

Based on work by cognitive scientists, mathematicians, and educators in the area of mathematical thinking, some efforts to improve K-12 mathematics education have focused on the level of cognitive demand placed on students by classroom tasks. Frameworks to categorize tasks by cognitive level have been developed by various assessment and professional development programs. One such program, the University of Pittsburgh's QUASAR Project, has studied the effects of the use of high level tasks by middle school teachers, and the factors that support or hinder teachers' use of them. This talk will provide an overview of this work and propose similar research at the high school level.


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Friday, October 28, 2005
The Creation and Facilitation of Cases in Mathematics Education

Room 2121 Benjamin Building
11:00 - 12:00 with discussion and free lunch to follow

By

Kay Merseth, Ed.D.
Director of Teacher Education Harvard University
and Experienced Case Discussion Facilitator

Dr. Merseth, author of Windows on Teaching Math: Cases of Middle and Secondary Classrooms, will use a letter from a teacher to generate discussion about how cases are created. In the letter, the teacher describes a student who when asked to write a word problem for 1/5 + 1/5 = 2/5 wrote,

Two groups of people are going to the movies. There are five people in each group. Only one person from each group came. What fraction came? 1/5 + 1/5 = 2/10

The role of a case facilitator will also be discussed using the “Opposites Attract” case. Please read both the letter and case prior to Dr. Merseth’s seminar.


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Friday, November 18, 2005
What can Mathematics Education Research Learn from Medical Research

Room 2121 Benjamin Building
11:00 - 12:00 with discussion and free lunch to follow

By

Finbar Sloane, Ph.D.
Arizona State University

The goal of this paper is to explore a complete rendering of the medical research model (all four phases of the model), and ask what can mathematics education researchers learn from the complete model. The rhetoric (political and otherwise) around medical research is quite interesting but missing in the political commentary about "goodness of research" is a discussion of the complete model, how the model maps or does not with issues pertinent to mathematics education, the research infrastructure that supports the medical model, and what infrastructure is necessary to support mathematics education research. In this talk I will explore each of these concerns in some detail, linking critical mathematics education research in support of my contentions. Finally, I will deliberate on the needed infrastructure for the conduct of viable and vibrant mathematics education research.



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Friday, December 9, 2005
Rescheduled for January 24, 2006 (University closing due to snow)

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