Break Out Room #1

Josh Markle (University of Calgary and University of Lethbridge)

Embodied Understanding and Spatial Reasoning

I attend to the following question: How can we better understand embodied experiences of spatial reasoning and visualization in mathematics? Specifically, I discuss the experiences of a group of pre-service teachers engaged in a visualization exercise as part of a mathematics curriculum and instruction course for non-math majors. I interpret these experiences from the perspectives of both carnal hermeneutics and enactivism. I focus on two phenomena that each impeded and aided visualization: drawing and gesture, respectively. These phenomena raise questions about how we might approach shape and space in the classroom.

Jamie S. Pyper (Queen’s University); Manon LeBlanc (Université de Moncton); Sean Chorney (Simon Fraser University); Egan Chernoff (University of Saskatchewan)

Problem-Based Learning and Prospective Secondary School Mathematics Teachers: An Approach to Improve Pedagogical Thinking and Competency

Secondary school mathematics preservice teacher learning – the pinch in an hourglass of the transition from student to teacher. The herculean task in that compressed centre in the hourglass must rest upon the preservice program to challenge and support changing beliefs which translate into pedagogical knowledge, attitudes, behaviours, and actions. A pedagogical practice that allows students and teachers to see themselves in the mathematics, to be gender, language, race, and culturally responsive to problem solving in the present and future world. Four teacher educators, from across Canada, are involved in a research project implementing Problem-Based Learning as a learning model.

Break Out Room #2

Marc Husband (TDSB)

Exploring algorithms in Grade 2: The Case of Arosha

This study was inspired by the current debate about teaching basic arithmetic algorithms. It investigated how purposefully curated discussions that occurred throughout a school year about addition and subtraction provoked a Grade 2 student (Arosha) to grow her understanding of standard algorithms. The lessons were curated based on recommendations about how to effectively use images to compare solutions strategies and research about subitizing. Drawing on weekly video recorded lessons and the Pirie-Kieren Theory, this study suggests that algorithms can be introduced early, as long they are considered along-side images that represent multiple solution strategies.

Heather Douglas (Carleton University); Jo-Anne LeFevre (Carleton University)

What students need to know about fractions

How do students make sense of fractions? To answer this question, we had students in grades 4 and 6 (N=130) complete a battery of tasks including a novel fraction mapping game where they matched fraction symbols to number words and to a variety of visual models. Five months later, we assessed their fraction skills. Students’ math vocabulary (i.e., knowing words like denominator, perimeter, factor) related to their growth in fraction mapping and students’ fraction mapping was related to more advanced skills such as placing fractions on the number line. A solid understanding of the fraction symbol and what it represents is foundational for more advanced fraction skills. Implications for teachers will be discussed.

Break Out Room #3

Mina Sedaghatjou (Alfred University, USA); James Howard (The Johns Hopkins University, USA); Minnie Liu (Simon Fraser University, Canada)

Pedagogy of Care: A New Dimension for Online STEM Teaching Proven by COVID19-Pandemic

In early 2020, when Covid-19 upturned teaching and learning in unforeseeable ways, we gathered as an international group of researchers to investigate the challenges that STEM faculty members faced in such a rushed online transition. We received 111 responses from STEM faculty members across the globe to our online survey within four weeks. The results of our online survey showed that online “assessment/evaluation” and “pedagogy” are the two delicate and intertwined challenging aspects of Khan’s (2017) e-learning framework. We also found that despite e-learning is barely defined as learning through machine interactions, the pandemic situation opened a new chapter in teaching STEM online for which the need for patience, understanding, and empathy came to be the paramount and missing dimension of the e-learning framework.

Pamela Brittain (PhD Candidate, University of Toronto, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education)

Investigating a Math Content Knowledge Course for Pre-Service Elementary Teachers (a Case Study)

Elementary teachers in Ontario are required to teach mathematics as a part of the curriculum on a daily basis. Yet many elementary pre-service teacher candidates (PSTCs) self-report as having high levels of math anxiety and struggle with math concepts at the elementary level. This case study is an investigation of a course that was created to address these issues through teaching elementary level numeracy skills to PSTCs. The study utilized both quantitative data collected from course surveys and qualitative interviews with those involved in the course to investigate the effectiveness of this course.