The Department of Mathematics & Statistics would like to welcome:
John Gruver, San Diego State University, on Wednesday, December 2nd, at 11:00 am in SCP 229
Title: The Conceptual Development of Exponential Relationships in a Class for Prospective Teachers
Abstract: Prospective teachers need deep conceptual understanding of the content they will teach to be effective in their future classrooms. In order to support the development of this type of knowledge, we need to understand the learning process as it occurs in classroom environments. Traditionally, research on learning has focused on either the development of a few individuals taught in a small group setting or on the mathematical progress of a classroom collective. While both have contributed to our understanding, neither help us understand what individuals learn when participating in a class. In this study, I documented the mathematical progress of the classroom collective and explored relationships between that progress and the nature of individual students’ subsequent reasoning.