Last Thursday I was surprised to learn I had won the University of Missouri’s Excellence in Advising Award. I knew I was nominated, but didn’t know I had won until the ceremony. The honor is a campus-level award given to one faculty member each year “who has demonstrated the qualities associated with outstanding undergraduate student advising.” I am thankful for my colleagues for supporting me and for my students for allowing me to learn with and through them.
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My amazing colleague Sam Otten has been running the Math Ed Podcast for several years. Each episode features a mathematics education scholar talking about a recent publication. You can get the behind the scenes thinking that went into the paper. I highly recommend using these podcasts with students and sharing them with others. There are over 100 episodes and more coming every other week! If you are not already subscribed to it, you should be! To listen to my episode visit this site.
An article from my dissertation study was finally published! It took awhile, but I am proud of how it came out. Here is the reference:
de Araujo, Z. (in press). Connections between secondary mathematics teachers’ beliefs and their selection of tasks for English language learners. Curriculum Inquiry
The big takeaway from this article is this: What is intuitive regrading teaching mathematics with English learners is often not what is best.
Abstract: The tasks teachers select impact students’ opportunities to learn mathematics and teachers’ beliefs influence their choice of tasks. Through the qualitative analysis of surveys, interviews and classroom artefacts from three secondary mathematics teachers, this study examined teachers’ selection of mathematics tasks for English language learners (ELLs). In particular, this study explored teachers’ beliefs about ELLs and the ways in which those beliefs manifested in their selection of tasks. In order to accommodate ELLs, the teachers selected tasks that were repetitive, procedure-focused and devoid of context. The teachers’ choice of tasks stemmed from their beliefs about ELLs’ mathematical and linguistic abilities. Furthermore, the teachers often referred to ELLs as a homogenous group and this generalization, coupled with beliefs about ELLs’ mathematical and linguistic abilities, was evident in their task selections. The findings suggest a need to critically examine the potential impact of seemingly benign teaching practices and the beliefs underlying them.
I am currently the Principal Investigator on an NSF-Funded grant studying Flipped Mathematics Instruction. Visit this site to learn more.
Zandra de Araujo, PhD