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Characterizing Mathematics Graduate Student Teaching Assistants’ Opportunities to Learn from Teaching

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Mathematics Education

Part of the book series: Association for Women in Mathematics Series ((AWMS,volume 7))

Abstract

Exemplary models to inform novice instruction and the development of graduate teaching assistants (TAs) exist. What is missing from the literature is the process of how graduate students in model professional development programs make sense of and enact the experiences offered. A first step to understanding TAs’ learning to teach is to characterize how and whether they link observations of student work to hypotheses about student thinking and then connect those hypotheses to future teaching actions. A reason to be interested in these connections is that their strength and coherence determine how well TAs can learn from experiences. We found TAs can connect observations and future teaching, but that the connections vary in quality. Our analysis suggests future revisions to TA development programs, which we discuss in the conclusion.

MSC Codes

97B99

97B50

97-xx

97Axx

97B40

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mathematics, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 203 Avery Hall, 880130, Lincoln, NE, 68588-0130, USA

    Yvonne Lai, Nathan P. Wakefield, Erica R. Miller, Julia St. Goar, Corbin M. Groothuis & Kelsey M. Wells

  2. Center for Science, Mathematics & Computer Education, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 251 Avery Hall, 880131, Lincoln, NE, 68588-0131, USA

    Wendy M. Smith

Authors
  1. Yvonne Lai
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  2. Wendy M. Smith
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  3. Nathan P. Wakefield
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  4. Erica R. Miller
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  5. Julia St. Goar
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  6. Corbin M. Groothuis
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  7. Kelsey M. Wells
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yvonne Lai .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mathematics, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, California, USA

    Jacqueline Dewar

  2. Independent, Columbia Falls, Maine, USA

    Pao-sheng Hsu

  3. Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, Massachusetts, USA

    Harriet Pollatsek

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Lai, Y. et al. (2016). Characterizing Mathematics Graduate Student Teaching Assistants’ Opportunities to Learn from Teaching. In: Dewar, J., Hsu, Ps., Pollatsek, H. (eds) Mathematics Education. Association for Women in Mathematics Series, vol 7. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44950-0_6

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