Research in mathematics teacher education highlights the importance of teachers developing deep mathematical understanding and experiencing mathematics as a process of reasoning and inquiry. Opportunities for teachers to engage in mathematical exploration may support shifts in how they conceptualise mathematics and its teaching. Engaging teachers in processes such as specialising, conjecturing, generalising, and justifying (Mason et al., 2010) can help them experience mathematics as structured, relational, and pattern-oriented rather than primarily procedural. While these processes are recognised as central to mathematical thinking, less is known about how in-service teachers engage with them within teacher education contexts. This study explores how in-service mathematics teachers engaged with these processes during a graduate mathematics education course structured around Mason’s framework of mathematical thinking. Participants were practicing teachers enrolled in a graduate course in which tasks were designed to prompt exploration of examples, the formulation of conjectures, the development of generalisations, and the justification of emerging relationships. Data consisted of participants’ written solutions, conjectures, and reflective responses produced during course activities. Qualitative analysis examined how teachers engaged in the processes of specialising, conjecturing, generalising, and justifying, with particular attention to how participants noticed and articulated mathematical structure within the tasks. The study contributes to mathematics teacher education research by illustrating how engagement with mathematical thinking processes can support teachers in noticing mathematical structure and experiencing mathematics as a discipline of reasoning and inquiry.

Authors:
Lois George, The University of the West Indies, Jamaica

About the Presenter(s)
Dr. Lois George is a Senior Lecturer in Mathematics Education at the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, Jamaica. Her research focuses on mathematical thinking, teacher learning, and early numeracy development.

Connect on Linkedin
https://www.linkedin.com/in/loisgeorge

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