MEI 7: Seventh Conference on Research in Mathematics Education in Ireland
Published October 11, 2019 | Version v1
Conference paper Open

DILEMMAS EXPERIENCED IN LECTURING UNDERGRADUATE CALCULUS

Creators

  • 1. CASTEL, Dublin City University, Ireland
  • 2. Maynooth University, Ireland

Description

We consider a set of accounts written by two university lecturers describing incidents that took place during their first-year Calculus modules. Analysis of these accounts revealed that the lecturers had to make some difficult decisions while teaching. These situations sometimes involved choices between two or more alternatives each of which had disadvantages. We labelled these choices ‘dilemmas’. Here we present and discuss the three most common types of dilemma evident from our data: namely, balancing good practice in teaching with students’ feeling of discomfort; balancing the needs of students with different backgrounds; balancing time constraints and active participation by students.

Files

Breen_S.pdf

Files (264.4 kB)

Name Size Download all
md5:5a3c8ac09ba6e412ca6e019b21b5d744
264.4 kB Preview Download

Additional details

References

  • Ball, D. L. (1993). With an eye on the mathematical horizon: Dilemmas of teaching elementary school mathematics. The Elementary School Journal, 93(4), 373-397.
  • Breen, S., McCluskey, A., Meehan, M., O'Donovan, J., & O'Shea, A. (2014). A year of engaging with the discipline of noticing: Five mathematics lecturers' reflections. Teaching in Higher Education, 19(3), 289-300.
  • Lampert, M. (1985). How do teachers manage to teach? Perspectives on problems in practice, Harvard Educational Review, 55(2), 178-194.
  • Mason, J. H. (2002a). Mathematics teaching practice: Guide for university and college lecturers. Elsevier.
  • Mason, J. (2002b). Researching your own practice: The discipline of noticing. London: Routledge Farmer.
  • O'Shea, A., Breen, S., & Meehan, M. (2018). Decision points in mathematics lectures. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 55(6), 650-659.
  • Scager, K., Akkerman, S. F., Pilot, A., & Wubbels, T. (2017). Teacher dilemmas in challenging students in higher education. Teaching in Higher Education, 22(3), 318-335.
  • Schoenfeld, A. H. (2008). On modeling teachers' in-the-moment decision-making. A study of teaching: multiple lenses, multiple views, 45-96.
  • Speer, N. M., & Wagner, J. F. (2009). Knowledge needed by a teacher to provide analytic scaffolding during undergraduate mathematics classroom discussions. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 530-562.
  • Thomas, D. R. (2006). A general inductive approach for analyzing qualitative evaluation data. American Journal of Evaluation, 27(2), 237-246.
  • Tripp, D. (1993). Critical incidents in teaching (classic edition): Developing professional judgement. London: Routledge.
  • Williams, S. R., & Baxter, J. A. (1996). Dilemmas of discourse-oriented teaching in one middle school mathematics classroom. The Elementary School Journal, 97(1), 21-38.
  • Yoon, C., Kensington-Miller, B., Sneddon, J., & Bartholomew, H. (2011). It's not the done thing: Social norms governing students' passive behaviour in undergraduate mathematics lectures. International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology, 42(8), 1107-1122.