Teachers’ Understanding of Generalizing and Justifying in a Professional Development Course

Leonor Santos; Joana Mata-Pereira; João Pedro da Ponte; Hélia Oliveira

doi:10.29333/ejmste/11488

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Leonor Santos ¹ ^* , Joana Mata-Pereira ¹ , João Pedro da Ponte ¹ , Hélia Oliveira ¹

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¹ Instituto de Educação, Universidade de Lisboa, PORTUGAL^* Corresponding Author

Abstract

A teaching practice consistent with the development of students’ mathematical reasoning requires teachers to hold a profound understanding of mathematical reasoning. The aim of this research is to study the development of middle and secondary mathematics teachers’ understanding about the processes of generalizing and justifying in a professional development course. Data collection included observation of the course sessions, with video recordings, and document collection of teachers’ and their students’ productions. A qualitative in-depth analysis was carried out focusing on the ways and complexity of generalizing identified by the teachers. The results indicate that teachers progressively focus their attention on these reasoning processes, identifying and characterizing them. The way the course was designed and enacted appears to have contributed to enable the teachers to deepen their understanding of two central mathematical reasoning processes, generalizing and justifying, in addition to their ability to foster and identify such processes in the work with their students.

Keywords

generalizing
justifying
mathematical reasoning
teacher education
teachers’ understanding of reasoning processes

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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Research Article

EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed, Volume 18, Issue 1, January 2022, Article No: em2067

https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/11488

Publication date: 03 Jan 2022

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Article Downloads: 1348

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Declaration of Conflict of Interest: No conflict of interest is declared by author(s).

Data sharing statement: Data supporting the findings and conclusions are available upon request from the corresponding author(s).

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How to cite this article

APA

Santos, L., Mata-Pereira, J., da Ponte, J. P., & Oliveira, H. (2022). Teachers’ Understanding of Generalizing and Justifying in a Professional Development Course. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 18(1), em2067. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/11488

Vancouver

Santos L, Mata-Pereira J, da Ponte JP, Oliveira H. Teachers’ Understanding of Generalizing and Justifying in a Professional Development Course. EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed. 2022;18(1):em2067. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/11488

AMA

Santos L, Mata-Pereira J, da Ponte JP, Oliveira H. Teachers’ Understanding of Generalizing and Justifying in a Professional Development Course. EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed. 2022;18(1), em2067. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/11488

Chicago

Santos, Leonor, Joana Mata-Pereira, João Pedro da Ponte, and Hélia Oliveira. "Teachers’ Understanding of Generalizing and Justifying in a Professional Development Course". Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education 2022 18 no. 1 (2022): em2067. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/11488

Harvard

Santos, L., Mata-Pereira, J., da Ponte, J. P., and Oliveira, H. (2022). Teachers’ Understanding of Generalizing and Justifying in a Professional Development Course. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 18(1), em2067. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/11488

MLA

Santos, Leonor et al. "Teachers’ Understanding of Generalizing and Justifying in a Professional Development Course". Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, vol. 18, no. 1, 2022, em2067. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/11488