Making Art in Math Class During the Pandemic

For many of us, the pandemic has changed how we teach and how we support students. This manuscript highlights creativity as a way to support for student mathematical and emotional well-being. It describes the positive impact that creative assignments in a mathematics content course for preservice K-8 teachers had on students during the early days of the pandemic. The story is told by the instructor and two former students in the course.

Preservice Teacher Perceptions on the Design of a U-Pace Online Course Compared to a Conventional Face-to-Face Mathematics Content Course

This chapter examines preservice teachers' (PSTs) perceptions on the design of both an online and face-to-face mathematics content course for elementary and middle school preservice teachers. The chapter describes the instructor's design goals, considerations, and describes PSTs' experiences in the process of completing the course. Further, the chapter describes the features of the course that provided productive learning opportunities for PSTs. Drawing from PSTs' reflection after completing an online course and face-to-face course, the chapter compares PSTs' experiences and learning outcomes from the online course compared to a traditional face-to-face course. Finally, the authors explicate the affordances and constraints encountered by both the instructor and the students as they completed the online course.

Complexity of (Re)Learning the Meaning of Multiplication of Fractions in the Context of a Mathematics Content Course

The context in which preservice teachers (PSTs) learn the mathematical knowledge required for teaching in an elementary classroom is still less obvious. This chapter addresses the complexity of PSTs (re)learning the mathematical knowledge for teaching multiplication of fractions in a mathematics content course. The existing literature on PSTs' learning in a mathematics content course has focused on models for designing the course and efforts for designing innovative pedagogies. In addition, more recent studies have explored the design and implementation of mathematical tasks in a content course. However, studies that have provided insights into the affordances and complexity involved in developing fraction concepts using the basic principles of critical thinking are limited. The aim of this chapter is to explore the extent to which PSTs can develop a conceptual understanding of multiplication of fractions in the context of a mathematics content course designed using the basic principles of critical thinking. The complexities, challenges and tensions confronted by PSTs and the instructor as they (re) learn the meaning of multiplication in more nuanced ways will be discussed.

Prospective Elementary Teachers Making Sense of Multidigit Multiplication: Leveraging Resources

This study examines how collective activity related to multiplication evolved over several class sessions in an elementary mathematics content course that was designed to foster prospective elementary teachers' number-sense development. We document how the class drew on as-if-shared ideas to make sense of multidigit multiplication in terms of partial products and to reason flexibly about products. We document how the class overcame the challenge of accounting for partial products in multidigit multiplication, including particular activities and ways of reasoning that facilitated progress. The results provide insights into how prospective elementary teachers' understanding of multidigit multiplication can develop during a content course and how a sequence of instructional activities and practices can productively leverage the resources that they bring in support of that development.

Inviting Prospective Teachers to Share Rough Draft Mathematical Thinking

Engaging prospective elementary teachers (PTs) in participating productively by making their exploratory (rough draft) thinking public during class discussions remains a constant challenge for instructors of mathematics content courses for teachers, in part because of perspectives incoming PTs may hold about interacting in academic settings. In this article, we share the effects of an intervention designed to confront PTs' incoming perspectives. PTs were provided with opportunities to label the level of completeness and correctness of their thinking before they displayed and discussed their written work publicly during a mathematics content course for teachers. Results indicated that labeling their work increased PTs' level of comfort with sharing their thinking and awareness of the value of doing so. PTs also reported that the label served as a reflection tool. The label increased the PTs' productive disposition in terms of comfort level with taking intellectual risks when doing mathematics and reflecting on their work.