Work

Engagement with student written work as an instantiation of and proxy for how college calculus instructors engage with student thinking

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: Teachers who use student thinking to make instructional decisions tend to create more positive learning experiences for students and support conceptual understanding. Looking at student work is one way college instructors learn about student thinking. We interviewed eight calculus instructors to investigate what they noticed when examining student work. Reflexive thematic analysis allowed us to classify instructors by the stance they adopted when looking at student work. Instructors who adopted an evaluative stance responded by providing examples or explaining how to solve the problem, often taking on the intellectual work of solving the problem. Instructors who adopted an interpretive stance responded by providing examples or asking guiding questions informed by the student’s thinking. We then extended our analyses to illustrate two instructional archetypes (Interpreter and Evaluator), to highlight how the stance taken when examining student work can serve as a proxy for how instructors engage with student thinking more broadly.

Source: The Journal of Mathematical Behavior

DOI: 10.1016/j.jmathb.2024.101187

Authors: Jessica Gehrtz, Jess Ellis Hagman, Victoria Barron

Institutions: The University of Texas at San Antonio, Colorado State University, University of Missouri

Language: English

Topic: Mathematics Education and Teaching Techniques

Subfield: Education

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Quality education

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $2,980