William H. Robertson

Hispanic Preservice Teachers’ Peer Evaluations of Interdisciplinary Curriculum Development A Self-Referenced Comparison Between Monolingual Generalists and Bilingual Generalists

This study investigated preservice teachers from two teacher education programs, elementary generalists and bilingual generalists (who will teach all subjects in both English and Spanish), about their instructional design abilities via examination of their ability to integrate interdisciplinary-themed activities into mathematics lessons. The findings illustrate the value provided by differentiating teacher preparation for preservice bilingual teachers—especially for challenging STEM-related (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) subjects such as mathematics—based on their distinctive pedagogical, cognitive, and linguistic requirements.

“It Doesn’t Feel Like a Job to Learn”: Preservice Elementary Teachers’ Perceptions of Dance-Themed Mathematics Education

ABSTRACT A series of dance activities were introduced to preservice teachers (n = 76) to help them understand how mathematics concepts could be associated with dance performance and choreography processes. A total of 468 pieces of qualitative data were collected, including 147 online discussion entries with 248 follow-up comments, and 73 individual reflection essays. The main themes for the various benefits that emerged across the preservice teachers’ reflections were: (1) improving students’ dispositions toward mathematics and creating an enjoyable learning environment for reducing mathematics anxiety; (2) allowing students to develop their creativity and allowing teachers to meet different students’ needs; and (3) developing students’ conceptual understandings of mathematics through multiple types of connections, representations, and communication. The findings support practical approaches for teacher educators who wish to employ dance in instructing mathematics teaching methods to their preservice teachers.

The Skatepark Mathematics Extravaganza

In the fall of 2014, a series of live demonstrations and field-based activities were lead by a team of educators and top action sports athletes who performed at local high schools. These events, entitled the “Skatepark Mathematics Extravaganza”, were done in order to engage high school students in focused explorations of mathematics set in a real world setting that is relevant to youth culture, namely, skateboarding and bicycle motocross (BMX). These activities incorporated mathematics for the students to do after the demonstration in meetings with classes in which the Action Science Stunt Team performed maneuvers on ramps at the high school and from which students collected real world data. These demonstrations and subsequent field-based activities allowed the students to explore practical applications of mathematics principles in geometry and algebra in the context of BMX and skateboarding. Approximately 4,000 students in the 10th grade participated in the six on-campus events.