Current Search: Dixon, Juli K. (x)
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(1 - 4 of 4)
- Title
- CHALLENGING A TRADITIONAL SOCIAL NORM IN A SECOND GRADE MATHEMATICS CLASSROOM.
- Creator
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Egendoerfer, Lisa, Dixon, Juli K., University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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In an attempt to examine classroom dialogue within a second grade classroom, I encouraged students to participate in mathematics discussions without needing to raise their hands before speaking. I challenged this traditional social norm and established sociomathematical norms as the study progressed. My study showed the effects of this change on the dialogue of students in my classroom. Focus was placed on the participation in classroom discussions when traditional social and...
Show moreIn an attempt to examine classroom dialogue within a second grade classroom, I encouraged students to participate in mathematics discussions without needing to raise their hands before speaking. I challenged this traditional social norm and established sociomathematical norms as the study progressed. My study showed the effects of this change on the dialogue of students in my classroom. Focus was placed on the participation in classroom discussions when traditional social and sociomathematical norms were in place as well as when new norms were established. The study helped determine the effects of student-centered dialogue on conceptual understanding as demonstrated in the students' discussions, participation, and written expression.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2006
- Identifier
- CFE0000946, ucf:46734
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0000946
- Title
- THE PATHS TO BECOMING A MATHEMATICS TEACHER.
- Creator
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Lowry, Kimberly, Dixon, Juli K., University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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Increasing numbers of mathematics teachers must be recruited in coming years, because of a growing student population, teacher attrition, calls for smaller class size, and the need to replace out-of-subject teachers. Recruitment can be made more effective and efficient, if better information on career paths is provided to decision makers. This study attempts to analyze the academic decisions which lead to the outcome "becoming a mathematics teacher". Four groups were compared and contrasted:...
Show moreIncreasing numbers of mathematics teachers must be recruited in coming years, because of a growing student population, teacher attrition, calls for smaller class size, and the need to replace out-of-subject teachers. Recruitment can be made more effective and efficient, if better information on career paths is provided to decision makers. This study attempts to analyze the academic decisions which lead to the outcome "becoming a mathematics teacher". Four groups were compared and contrasted: mathematics teachers, science teachers, other teachers, and non-teachers. Science teachers were removed from the "other teachers" category because of their many similarities to mathematics teachers on the variables examined. The question of whether these groups differ in ways that could help predict the outcome of interest was examined using the NCES dataset Baccalaureate &Beyond:93/97, which provides thousands of variables on academic path, demographics, and labor market histories for over 8,000 individuals. It was analyzed using the NCES online analytic tool DAS to generate tables showing percentage distribution of the four groups on variables organized according to the concepts demographics, family environment, academic path, and academic achievement. Further examination was conducted by entering the variables into a discriminant analysis. Mathematics teachers were found to differ from teachers of other K-12 fields on all of the four conceptual categories. However, only a few such differences were statistically significant. More significant differences were observed when the analyses were conducted separately for women and men. The trend observed was that those who became mathematics teachers were more likely to have attended public high schools and to have first attended two-year colleges; to have lower GPAs, more mathematics credits, and midrange CEE scores; and to be female.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2006
- Identifier
- CFE0001002, ucf:46835
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0001002
- Title
- SUPPORTING A STANDARDS-BASED TEACHING AND LEARNING ENVIRONMENT: A CASE STUDY OF AN EXPERT MIDDLE SCHOOL MATHEMATICS TEACHER.
- Creator
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Akyuz, Didem, Dixon, Juli K., University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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Although it has been more than 20 years since the publication of Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics (NCTM, 1989) and 10 years since the second version of standards, Principles and Standards for School Mathematics (NCTM, 2000), the research underlines the lack of essential practices for standards-based teaching (Franke, Kazemi, & Battey, 2007). The literature also emphasizes the importance of planning in standards-based teaching, although few studies focus on the direct...
Show moreAlthough it has been more than 20 years since the publication of Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics (NCTM, 1989) and 10 years since the second version of standards, Principles and Standards for School Mathematics (NCTM, 2000), the research underlines the lack of essential practices for standards-based teaching (Franke, Kazemi, & Battey, 2007). The literature also emphasizes the importance of planning in standards-based teaching, although few studies focus on the direct planning of the teacher (Kilpatrick, Swafford, & Findell, 2001). The aim of the current study was to conduct a case study to extract the planning and classroom practices of an expert seventh grade mathematics teacher. The extracted practices were interpreted using the teaching-in-context theory which is based on the beliefs, goals, and knowledge of the teacher. The case study was conducted in a design experiment environment where the instructional sequence was revised based on the classroom instruction. The data were collected through different resources including videotapes of classroom sessions, teacher notes, students' artifacts, audiotapes of daily teacher interviews, weekly teacher meetings and classroom small groups in five weeks. Transcripts were used to observe the action patterns of the teacher during both planning and classroom practices. By triangulating the data, planning practices were separated into five categories: preparation, reflection, anticipation, assessment, and revision. These practices were interrelated in an environment of collaboration. Classroom practices also were categorized into five groups, namely creating and sustaining social norms, facilitating genuine mathematical discourse, supporting the development of sociomathematical norms, capitalizing on students' imagery to create inscriptions and notation, and developing small groups as communities of learners. Similar to the planning practices, these were also highly interrelated with social norms playing a key role in application of all other practices. The results showed that the expert teacher used a diverse set of practices with each practice comprised of multiple actions to create and sustain a standards-based environment. The results also indicated that standards-based teaching requires a rich and connected body of knowledge about students, curriculum, content, and literature. It was found that the depth of the teacher's knowledge allowed her to develop practices that were consistent with her beliefs and goals. Finally, the planning and classroom practices were found to be highly interrelated. While effective planning practices facilitated the application of standards-based teaching, the classroom teaching practices equipped the teacher with the data necessary to perform effective planning practices.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2010
- Identifier
- CFE0003449, ucf:48395
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0003449
- Title
- EXPLORING THE UNDERSTANDING OF WHOLE NUMBER CONCEPTS AND OPERATIONS: A CASE STUDY ANALYSIS OF PROSPECTIVE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHERS.
- Creator
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Safi, Farshid, Dixon, Juli K., University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
This research project aimed to extend the research literature by providing greater insight into the way individual prospective teachers develop their conceptual understanding of whole number concepts and operations in a social context. In this qualitative study, a case study analysis provided the opportunity for careful exploration of the manner in which prospective teachers' understanding changed and the ways two selected participants reorganized their mathematical thinking within a...
Show moreThis research project aimed to extend the research literature by providing greater insight into the way individual prospective teachers develop their conceptual understanding of whole number concepts and operations in a social context. In this qualitative study, a case study analysis provided the opportunity for careful exploration of the manner in which prospective teachers' understanding changed and the ways two selected participants reorganized their mathematical thinking within a classroom teaching experiment. While previous research efforts insisted on creating a dichotomy of choosing the individual or the collective understanding, through the utilization of the emergent perspective both the individual and the social aspects were considered. Specifically, using the emergent perspective as a theoretical framework, this research endeavor has outlined the mathematical conceptions and activities of individual prospective teachers and thus has provided the psychological perspective correlate to the social perspective's classroom mathematical practices. As the research participants progressed through an instructional sequence taught entirely in base-8, a case study approach was used to select and analyze two individuals. In order to gain a more thorough understanding of the individual perspective, this research endeavor focused on whether teachers with varying initial content knowledge developed differently through this instructional sequence. The first participant initially demonstrated "Low-Content" knowledge according to the CKT-M instrument database questions which measure content knowledge for teaching mathematics. She developed a greater understanding of place value concepts and was able to apply this new knowledge to gain a deeper sense of the rationale behind counting strategies and addition and subtraction operations. She did not demonstrate the ability to consistently make sense of multiplication and division strategies. She participated in the classroom argumentation primarily by providing claims and data as she illustrated the way she would use different procedures to solve addition and subtraction problems. The second participant illustrated "High-Content" knowledge based on the CKT-M instrument. She already possessed a solid foundation in understanding place value concepts and throughout the instructional sequence developed various ways to connect and build on her initial understanding through the synthesis of multiple pedagogical content tools. She demonstrated conceptual understanding of counting strategies, and all four whole number operations. Furthermore, by exploring various ways that other prospective teachers solved the problems, she also presented a greater pedagogical perspective in how other prospective teachers think mathematically. This prospective teacher showed a shift in her participation in classroom argumentation as she began by providing claims and data at the outset of the instructional sequence. Later on, she predominantly provided the warrants and backings to integrate the mathematical concepts and pedagogical tools used to develop greater understanding of whole number operations. These results indicate the findings based on the individual case-study analysis of prospective elementary school teachers and the cross-case analysis that ensued. The researcher contends that through the synthesis of the findings of this project along with current relevant research efforts, teacher educators and educational policy makers can revisit and possibly revise instructional practices and sequences in order to develop teachers with greater conceptual understanding of concepts vital to elementary mathematics.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2009
- Identifier
- CFE0002811, ucf:48097
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0002811
