Ilana Lavy

Perceptions of Israeli mathematics teachers regarding their professional development needs

Recent reforms in mathematics education have increased the need for teachers to attend professional development programs. In order to motivate teachers to attend such programs and to maximize their effect on teachers’ development, we believe it is important to adapt the contents of such programs to teachers’ perceived needs. The current study was designed to explore the professional needs of Israeli mathematics teachers, as they perceived them. Our results show that teachers are mainly concerned with developing their mathematical knowledge and acquiring knowledge that relates to the way in which students comprehend various mathematical concepts. However, these concerns stem from different positions that can be attributed to their teaching experience: new teachers appear to be self-centered; therefore their concern with developing their knowledge might be a result of a need to gain self-confidence. More experienced teachers are able to consider the effect of their teaching on students’ learning, and it appears that their wish to acquire knowledge stems from this perspective. Highly experienced teachers, like new teachers, are also self-centered, believing they know everything about teaching and learning, and therefore express interest in acquiring knowledge merely for satisfying their own curiosity.

Problem-Posing Activities in a Dynamic Geometry Environment: When and How

In this chapter, results obtained from previous studies on the issue of problem posing in a dynamic software environment using the “what if not?” strategy are presented. These results include outcomes received from prospective teachers’ engagement in problem-posing activities both in plane and solid geometry, and outcomes received by the engagement of the researcher in the problem-posing activity. The above-presented results are followed by discussion and a list of implications for instruction. Problem-posing activities should follow activities of problem solving through which the content knowledge of the learnt topic is built. Students should experience problem-posing activities starting at elementary school. In these activities they should be provided with opportunities to develop cognitive processes needed for problem posing such as filtering, comprehending, translating, and editing. When students are exposed to geometrical objects, they should be provided with the option to make sense of the objects via dynamic geometry software.

Students’ Misconceptions of Java Exceptions

This study examines how Information Systems Engineering School students understand the mechanism of exception handling. The main contributions of this paper are as follows: we provide an analysis tool to measure the level of understanding of exception handling mechanism in Java, based on the SOLO taxonomy; we present and analyse strategies to handle exceptions; we present and analyse solutions provided by novice programmers; the students’ responses to the questionnaire were classified and analysed in order to determine their level of understanding of the mechanism. The results obtained reveal that only few participants provided a solution that was classified to one of the two highest understanding levels, while many provided solutions that demonstrate only basic understanding. The participants had difficulties in utilising the advanced exception handling mechanisms, and in exhibiting a high level of abstraction with regard to the proper design of a hierarchy of exceptions.

Practicum-Based Approach to Bridge between Information-Systems Industry Expectations and Graduates Qualifications.

In this study, a practicum-based approach to bridge the gap between industry expectations and InformationSystemsgraduatesskillsispresentedanddiscussed.Studentsparticipateinthepracticum projectduringtheirlaststudyyear,andtakepartinvariousprofessionalactivitiesintheindustry in accordance with their professional aspirations and their desired specialty. Semi-structured questionnairesand interviewswithstudentswhoparticipated in theproject in the last fouryears wereconductedinordertorevealthestudents’perceivedcontributionsoftheproject.Thestudents experienced real workplace environments, acquired extended knowledge and skills, built social infrastructure toassist themwith future jobseeking,andaboveallgainedrealworldexperience thathelpthemtobuildtheirprofessionalimage,andgainconfidenceintheirtraitsandabilities.In addition,thepracticum-basedapproachwascomparedwithothercommonapproachesusedtobridge thegap,anditsrelativeadvantagesanddisadvantageswerediscussed. KEywoRdS Graduates’ Skills, Independent Learner Skills, Information Systems Education, Knowledge Gaps, Practicum

A case study of dynamic visualization and problem solving

This paper reports an example of a situation in which university students had to solve geometrical problems presented to them dynamically using the interactive computerized environment of the ‘MicroWorlds Project Builder’. In the process of the problem solving, the students used ten different solution strategies. The unsuccessful strategies were then classified into three main categories: distracting, reducing and confusing. One student group had to solve the same problem in its non-dynamic version. The results received from both groups were compared and analysed. Analysis of the solution strategies and the process of the categorization revealed that the percentage of success in both groups was similar and in the case of the given problem, the dynamic visual mode of the problem distracted the students’ attention away from proper handling of the solution of the problem.