Abstract
Mathematics education courses in mathematics undergraduate programs often aim to introduce students to the field of mathematics education research (RME) or/and to prepare them for the profession of mathematics teaching. This aim requires a balance of attention to mathematical content together with attention to RME findings. Such balance is the focus of this chapter in which we propose course activities and an assessment frame for undergraduates’ engagement with both mathematical and pedagogical discourses. We draw on the MathTASK program (https://www.uea.ac.uk/groups-and-centres/a-z/mathtask) to present the design principles of activities that contextualize the use of mathematics education theory and mathematical content to specific learning situations that may emerge in the classroom. Such activities pose mathematical and pedagogical challenges (MC and PC) to often long-held views about mathematics and its pedagogy. Participants were eight final-year undergraduate mathematics students who attended a mathematics education course, in which the aforementioned activities were part of their formative and summative assessment. Analysis of student responses through a commognitive lens examined the students’ reification of mathematical and pedagogical discourse (RMD and RPD) in response to MC and PC by the end of the course. Here, we sample evidence of how students responded to MC (e.g., in terms of mathematical accuracy) and PC (e.g., in terms of routines, narratives and word use in their engagement with RME) and we explore the relation between RMD and RPD in their responses. Our findings highlight the capacity of MathTASK activities to challenge, and potentially shift, students’ often deeply rooted mathematical and pedagogical narratives.
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Acknowledgments
MathTASK (https://www.uea.ac.uk/groups-and-centres/a-z/mathtask) is supported by the UEA Pro-Vice Chancellor’s Impact Fund. We would like to thank the undergraduate students who have chosen this course and consented to the use of their responses to the MathTASK activities for the purposes of this study.
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Biza, I., Nardi, E. (2023). Challenging Undergraduate Students’ Mathematical and Pedagogical Discourses Through MathTASK Activities. In: Leikin, R. (eds) Mathematical Challenges For All . Research in Mathematics Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-18868-8_18
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