Mathematical Habits of Mind for Teaching: Using Language in Algebra Classrooms
Abstract
"The notion of mathematical knowledge for teaching has been studied by many researchers, especially at the elementary grades. Our understandings of this notion parallel much of what we have read in the literature, but are based on our particular experiences over the past 20 years, as mathematicians engaged in doing mathematics with secondary teachers. As part of the work of Focus on Mathematics, Phase II MSP, we are developing, in collaboration with others in the field, a research program with the ultimate goal of understanding the connections between secondary teachers' mathematical knowledge for teaching and secondary students' mathematical understanding and achievement. We are in the early stages of a focused research study investigating the research question:
What are the mathematical habits of mind that high school teachers use in their professional lives and how can we measure them? The main focus of this paper is the discussion of the habit of using mathematical language, and particularly how this habit plays out in a classroom setting."
