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ERIC Number: EJ920997
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2011
Pages: 38
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0737-0008
EISSN: N/A
Studying the Practical Rationality of Mathematics Teaching: What Goes into "Installing" a Theorem in Geometry?
Herbst, Patricio; Nachlieli, Talli; Chazan, Daniel
Cognition and Instruction, v29 n2 p218-255 2011
This article presents a way of studying the rationality that mathematics teachers utilize in managing the teaching of theorems in high-school geometry. More generally, the study illustrates how to elicit the rationality that guides teachers in handling the demands of teaching practice. In particular, it illustrates how problematic classroom scenarios represented through animations of cartoon characters can facilitate thought experiments among groups of practitioners. Relying on video records from four study group sessions with experienced teachers of geometry, the study shows how these records can be parsed and inspected to identify categories of perception and appreciation with which experienced practitioners relate to an instance of an instructional situation. The study provides initial evidence that supports a theoretically derived hypothesis, namely that teachers of geometry as a group recognize as normative the expectation that a teacher will sanction or endorse those propositions that are to be remembered as theorems for later use. In interacting with a story in which students had proven a proposition that the teacher had not identified as a theorem, the study also shows the kind of tactical resources that teachers of geometry could use to make it feasible for students to reuse such a proposition. (Contains 3 figures, 2 tables, and 10 footnotes.)
Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 325 Chestnut Street Suite 800, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Fax: 215-625-2940; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: High Schools
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A