Abstract
This chapter examines the written reflections of 33 elementary prospective teachers who, as part of their mathematics methods course, engaged in a Community Mathematics Exploration during their teacher preparation program. Two main categories of questions posed to the prospective teachers included (a) questions that pertained to community visits and (b) questions that centered on lesson planning and mathematics teaching following a community visit experience. An iterative analysis was utilized to sort the prospective teachers’ key ideas regarding their Community Mathematic Exploration Module experience. Findings suggests that the Community Mathematics Exploration Module can be a valuable tool to support prospective teachers’ understanding of how to make connections in their mathematics teaching to their students’ home and community experiences. Key ideas include (a) opportunities to learn about students and their communities, (b) promoting student engagement, (c) real mathematics versus school mathematics, (d) a springboard to learning about diversity and equity, and (e) a guide to teaching practices. The Community Mathematics Exploration Module offers mathematics teacher educators the opportunity to help prospective teachers learn how to recognize the importance of making connections in their mathematics teaching that promote student learning.
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Stoehr, K.J. (2019). Prospective Teachers’ Reflections Across the Community Mathematics Exploration Module. In: Bartell, T., Drake, C., McDuffie, A., Aguirre, J., Turner, E., Foote, M. (eds) Transforming Mathematics Teacher Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-21017-5_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-21017-5_6
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