Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The Master of Arts program (MAMT) in the Department of Mathematics at The University of Texas at Arlington (UT-Arlington) is designed for inservice teachers who are interested in strengthening their understanding of mathematics and enriching their mathematics teaching. The courses in the MAMT program simultaneously integrate rigorous mathematics, effective pedagogy, and mathematics education research on student learning. Tasks designed for the course “Mathematics-specific Technologies”—a core requirement for the MAMT program—will be presented. The course includes the study of many mathematics-teaching-related freeware programs, graphing calculators, Mathematica, and Sketchpad®. The author will focus upon the mathematical knowledge inservice teachers must use with fluency to complete these tasks and the power of using mathematics-specific technology as a vehicle for gaining insight into inservice teachers’ conceptual understanding of the mathematics they teach.