Mathematical Modeling and the Teachers’ Tensions

Oliveira, Andréia Maria Pereira de; Barbosa, Jonei Cerqueira

doi:10.1007/978-1-4419-0561-1_44

Cited by 7 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…Research that explores how teachers manage mathematical modeling within the context of their own classrooms using ethnographic and mixed methods (Lesh & Doerr, 2003b) supports this more flexible characterization of teacher understanding. In contrast to a view of teachers' ideas as static and classifiable, these studies reveal that teachers successfully navigate tensions between modeling, mathematical, and pedagogical issues and flexibly adapt their instruction to student needs (de Oliveira & Barbosa, 2013;Doerr, 2007). Chapman (2007) found that some teachers engage their students deeply in specific aspects of modeling using word problems, even if they do not engage in full-fledged modeling activities.…”

mentioning

confidence: 80%

More than meets the eye: patterns and shifts in middle school mathematics teachers’ descriptions of models

Wilkerson

Bautista

Tobin

et al. 2016

J Math Teacher Educ

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mentioning

confidence: 80%

More than meets the eye: patterns and shifts in middle school mathematics teachers’ descriptions of models

Wilkerson

Bautista

Tobin

et al. 2016

J Math Teacher Educ

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“…Scholars have elaborated on the challenges and obstacles of implementing modeling in their lessons. Some attempted to explain the challenges of enacting modeling by examining teachers' individual resources, such as knowledge (e.g., de Oliveira & Barbosa, 2010) and teacher beliefs (e.g., Kaiser & Maaß, 2007), while others related the obstacles to sociocultural influences (e.g., Blum & Niss, 1991;Niss, 1987). This section explores each approach in turn.…”

Section: Challenges Of Enacting Modeling Tasksmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The individual resources can be divided into teacher qualifications (e.g., teacher knowledge) and teacher characteristics (e.g., teacher belief; Goe, 2007). de Oliveira and Barbosa (2010) took teacher knowledge into account when explaining a Brazilian secondary teacher's tensions while enacting modeling tasks. By analyzing the data from classroom observations and teacher interviews with a grounded theory method, they uncovered three types of tensions when the teacher tried to engage students in modeling.…”

Section: Challenges Of Enacting Modeling Tasksmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Research has discussed that mathematical modeling presents teachers with a new way of teaching mathematics and demands changes in classroom practices (e.g., Cheng, 2013;Doerr, 2007;Kaiser, 2017). Early research approached this problem from the perspective of personal characteristics (i.e., teacher knowledge, teacher beliefs) and assumed that the obstacles and challenges directly resulted from teachers' lack of knowledge or productive beliefs (e.g., de Oliveira & Barbosa, 2010;Kaiser & Maaß, 2007). Specifically, de Oliveira and Barbosa (2010) took teacher knowledge into account to explain a secondary teacher's challenges of enacting modeling tasks, suggesting that the teacher's lack of knowledge about the mathematical connections to students' responses to the tasks prevented the teacher from moving forward.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Early research approached this problem from the perspective of personal characteristics (i.e., teacher knowledge, teacher beliefs) and assumed that the obstacles and challenges directly resulted from teachers' lack of knowledge or productive beliefs (e.g., de Oliveira & Barbosa, 2010;Kaiser & Maaß, 2007). Specifically, de Oliveira and Barbosa (2010) took teacher knowledge into account to explain a secondary teacher's challenges of enacting modeling tasks, suggesting that the teacher's lack of knowledge about the mathematical connections to students' responses to the tasks prevented the teacher from moving forward. Kaiser and Maaß (2007) regarded teacher beliefs about mathematics as a fundamental reason for the low realization of modeling in mathematics classrooms.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Examining secondary teachers' practical rationality of mathematical modeling

Zhao¹

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Research on mathematical modeling is growing rapidly in the field of mathematics education, and there are numerous benefits of engaging students in modeling activities. However, mathematical modeling is still marginalized in mathematics instruction. In order to understand the challenges and obstacles secondary teachers face to incorporate modeling into their classrooms, this study drew upon the theoretical perspective of practical rationality. It used a breaching experiment survey of 176 secondary teachers in Missouri and follow-up interviews with six purposefully selected survey respondents to examine secondary teachers' norms and professional obligations related to mathematical modeling. After data collection, I used descriptive statistical analyses to examine the norms and applied the professional obligation framework to analyze teacher obligations. My findings confirmed four of the six hypothesized norms: Teachers tend to precisely identify which factors should be included in students' solutions, expect students to find a symbolic representation as their model, expect students to primarily work on politically neutral tasks, and are open to students doing model revisions. However, this study did not have robust enough evidence to confirm or disconfirm whether teachers tend to give students unambiguous directions about mathematical operations or components. Nor could it uncover whether students are expected to primarily engage in mathematical thinking rather than nonmathematical thinking during the modeling process. The findings also revealed that teachers' preferred actions among the scenarios presented were influenced by their perceived professional obligations, including commitments to individual students, the classroom's interpersonal dynamics, the practice of the mathematics discipline, and the institutions they work for. More specifically, disciplinary obligations featured most often in the survey responses of those teachers who complied with canonical actions. In contrast, those who selected noncanonical options (such as opening up the beginning phases of the modeling process) most often cited their obligations to individual student thinking to justify their survey responses. The findings suggested that the mathematics education community needs to increase awareness about complex and often conflicting teacher obligations related to mathematical modeling. To support teachers in enacting modeling, the field might consider qualified professional development, viable modeling tasks and tools, and a flexible schedule as well as opportunities to build shared understandings of disciplinary practices and obligations to students' individual needs.

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