Special Colloquium
Hyung Sook Lee
University of Georgia
Multiplicative reasoning in fractional contexts: A case study of a middle school teacher
Abstract: The main thrust of my research is to investigate teachers'
construction of mathematical knowledge as they interpret students'
mathematical thinking. From radical constructivist perspective,
teachers construct mathematics of students in the context of ongoing
interactive mathematical activity. Mathematics of students is distinct
from a teacher's own mathematics that she or he would not attribute to
students. Nevertheless, my hypothesis is that constructing
mathematics of students can contribute to a teacher's construction of
mathematical ways of thinking that may not be experienced in
interactive mathematical activity with students. The study I will
present was designed to explore teachers' constructive activity as
they interpreted video-taped episodes of a seventh grader solving
fractional tasks and as they solved fractional tasks that were
designed to explore their multiplicative reasoning. In the
presentation, I will discuss one eighth grade teacher's construction
of multiplicative reasoning involving a fractional relationship
between two quantities.
There will be a meet and greet right after the talk in SEO 300. Coffee, tea, & cookies will be provided.
Thursday January 31, 2008 at 1:00 PM in SEO 636