Jennifer Suh

The Shark in the Vitrine: Experiencing our Practice From the Inside Out With Transdisciplinary Lenses

The Scholars of Studying Teaching Collaborative engaged a dozen faculty members from 12 specializations and 4 colleges at a large public university in a 2-year teaching and research project with the goal of learning about and enacting a self-study of professional practice. Participants were selected from various disciplines to provoke alternative perspectives in whole group and critical friend teams. While we each conducted a self-study, we also designed and enacted a meta-study to assess our professional development within the context of the collaborative. We analyze the potential of engaging in collective self-study and report how the methodological challenges initiated transformational learning that bridged theory and praxis. Learning the self-study methodology was complex, but such concentration multiplied the impact of both personal and professional transformation. The study benefits faculty from a broad range of disciplines, at diverse stages in their academic careers, and working at every level of the academic hierarchy.

Developing Mathematical Potential in Underrepresented Populations through Problem Solving, Mathematical Discourse and Algebraic Reasoning

The following study explored strategies for developing mathematical potential and enhancing mathematics instruction for diverse learners from a low socio-economic population identified as “young scholars”. The intentional focus on designing and creating opportunities to foster mathematical potential and build collective knowledge influenced many of the pedagogical decisions made by the teacher and researcher in their jointly planned research lessons. The most salient features in developing mathematics potential in these young scholars were giving opportunities to 1) engage in rich mathematical tasks and sequence of related problems, b) use multiple representations to develop representational fluency, and c) develop mathematical communication where reasoning and proof and sense-making became a habit of mind and the focus of classroom discourse. Through encouragement and participation in problem solving, mathematical discourse and algebraic reasoning, students exhibited confidence, competence and more of the behavioural characteristics of mathematically proficient students.

Ambitious Teaching: Designing Practice-Based Assignments for Integrating Virtual Manipulatives into Mathematics Lessons

This chapter details a design-based research study that focused on developing effective approaches for pre-service teachers to integrate technology in the mathematics classroom. Using an iterative design cycle, the researcher developed three practice-based assignments during an elementary mathematics methods course that were designed to promote pre-service teachers’ technology pedagogical content knowledge. These practice based assignments allowed the participants to (a) analyze effective technology tools for mathematics teaching and learning; (b) evaluate applets that supported a vertical learning progression on a specific mathematics concept; and (c) design , implement and reflect on a mathematics lesson where technology amplified the mathematics teaching and learning. By creating pre-service teachers’ own practical image of practice after implementing the technology integrated lessons in the field, pre-service teachers gained a better “picture of practice” of ambitious teaching in the mathematics classroom where effective integration of technology helped construct students’ mathematical understanding.

Critical learning experiences for Korean engineering students to promote creativity and innovation

This paper presents an empirical study focused on examining the outcomes from a course designed to promoting innovation through an instructional intervention consisting of design thinking and project-based teaching practices and assessment methods for undergraduate engineering students. Design thinking is a key process that encourages iterative thinking for engineer students as they apply their discipline specific knowledge to solving real engineering problems. Using the phenomenological approach, the researchers present finding from the analysis of classroom artifacts (posters, models, prototypes, reflections and presentations) with individual interviews and survey data.