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Pedagogical Tasks Toward Extending Mathematical Knowledge: Notes on the Work of Teacher Educators

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The Learning and Development of Mathematics Teacher Educators

Part of the book series: Research in Mathematics Education ((RME))

  • The original version of this chapter was revised due to some errors (listed below) in the text at page numbers 98 and 99.• On pages 98 and 99, there are incorrect “+” symbols (with a circle around them), where this should have been an approximation symbol.• Also on pages 98 and 99, there are two instances of wrong indentations.The correction to this chapter is available at https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-62408-8_23

Abstract

The work of teacher educators juxtaposes mathematics and pedagogy and often involves the use of pedagogically oriented tasks to help teachers extend their understanding of the underlying mathematics. However, in teacher education programmes, where students come from different mathematical backgrounds, the nature and extent of the participants’ prior mathematical knowledge varies significantly. How then can a teacher educator get a “scan” of a group’s knowledge and understanding of a mathematical topic in order to plan for, or adjust, subsequent instruction? We address this question with illustrative examples relating to two topics: the concept of a function and irrational exponents. We describe pedagogical tasks that unveil the related mathematical knowledge of teachers and demonstrate how subsequent instructional choices build upon and expand this knowledge while highlighting links between tertiary and school mathematics.

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Change history

  • 12 June 2021

    The original version of this chapter was revised due to some errors (listed below) in the text at page numbers 98 and 99.

Notes

  1. 1.

    All participant names are pseudonyms.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Education, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada

    Rina Zazkis

  2. Mathematics Education Unit, Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Science, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

    Ofer Marmur

Authors
  1. Rina Zazkis
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  2. Ofer Marmur
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Correspondence to Rina Zazkis .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Education, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland

    Merrilyn Goos

  2. School of Education, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Kim Beswick

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Zazkis, R., Marmur, O. (2021). Pedagogical Tasks Toward Extending Mathematical Knowledge: Notes on the Work of Teacher Educators. In: Goos, M., Beswick, K. (eds) The Learning and Development of Mathematics Teacher Educators. Research in Mathematics Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-62408-8_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-62408-8_5

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-62407-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-62408-8

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