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Using half-baked microworlds to challenge teacher educators’ knowing

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Abstract

This article illustrates how four teacher educators in training were challenged with respect to their epistemology and perceptions of teaching and learning mathematics through their interactions with expressive digital media during a professional development course. The research focused on their experience of communally constructing artifacts and their reflections on the nature of mathematics and mathematics teaching and learning with digital media. I discussed three different ways in which this media was used by the teachers; first, as a means to engage in technical-applied mathematics to engineer mathematical models; second, as a means to construct models for students to engage in experimental-constructivist activity; thirdly, as a means to engage in a discussion of a challenging mathematical problem.

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Notes

  1. http://odysseia.cti.gr/English/ODYSSEIANEW.

  2. “Preparation for Teacher Education for new practices with new tools in the classroom”. E42: Postgraduate course in the Educational Use of Computer and Information Technology in Secondary Education, Ministry of Education, EPEAEK, 1999–2000.

  3. “Turtleworlds” is an E-slate Logo microworld combining turtle graphics with dynamic manipulation of variable values (Kynigos 2002). It can be downloaded from http://etl.ppp.uoa.gr.

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Acknowledgment

Thanks to Nikoleta Xenou and Kostas Gavrilis, my co-instructors who helped with the interviews and the reporting of the teacher education activity in the schools.

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  1. Pedagogy, University of Athens, School of Philosophy, Educational Technology Lab, Panepistimiopolis, Ilissia, Athens, 15781, Greece

    Chronis Kynigos

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  1. Chronis Kynigos
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Correspondence to Chronis Kynigos.

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Kynigos, C. Using half-baked microworlds to challenge teacher educators’ knowing. Int J Comput Math Learning 12, 87–111 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10758-007-9114-2

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