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Guiding Mathematical Inquiry in Mobile Settings

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Constructing Knowledge for Teaching Secondary Mathematics

Part of the book series: Mathematics Teacher Education ((MTEN,volume 6))

Abstract

Engaging mathematics students in active exploration of real-life scenarios and supporting inquiry processes are major challenges for teachers. It requires a shift in the teacher’s role from lecturing and telling to listening, observing, facilitating, and guiding. In our exploratory work we found that mobile devices can offer a challenging setting for educators to deepen their thinking about sensing mathematics and about socially constructing and mediating mathematical knowledge. The unique qualities of this setting follow from the mobility that enables learners to share knowledge. To demonstrate the possibilities of such a setting, we present innovative function graphing applications for mobile phones and a sequence of tasks designed to support the qualitative and quantitative inquiry of functions. We suggest that by engaging in such tasks, mathematics teachers can rethink their pedagogical, curricular, and subject matter knowledge, connect mathematical knowledge with real-life contexts, and interact socially in ways that support the creation of a community of proficient mathematics teachers.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Education, Institute for Research of Alternatives in Education, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel

    Michal Yerushalmy & Galit Botzer

Authors
  1. Michal Yerushalmy
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  2. Galit Botzer
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michal Yerushalmy .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. Education in Technology &, Science, Technion- Israel Institute of Technology, Technion City, Haifa, 32000, Israel

    Orit Zaslavsky

  2. Fac. Education, Monash University, Wellington Road, Clayton, 3800, Victoria, Australia

    Peter Sullivan

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Yerushalmy, M., Botzer, G. (2011). Guiding Mathematical Inquiry in Mobile Settings. In: Zaslavsky, O., Sullivan, P. (eds) Constructing Knowledge for Teaching Secondary Mathematics. Mathematics Teacher Education, vol 6. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-09812-8_12

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