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Teachers’ Personal Agency: Making Sense of Slope Through Additive Structures

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Abstract

In the context of a three-year professional development program in mathematics, practicing elementary teachers persistently engaged in collaborative inquiry and reflection to build connected meanings for slope. One teacher invented a compelling representation for slope as a process of repeated addition, using Cuisenaire rods, based on teachers' shared experiences developing recursively defined linear equations. The presence of and tension between different representations of slope, brought forth by the teachers, catalyzed productive cycles of choice and inquiry for the entire class. Personal agency, purposeful choice, and performance provide a valuable lens for fine-grained analysis of mathematical learning.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Brigham Young University, TMCB 260, Provo, 84602, UT, USA

    Janet G. Walter & Hope Gerson

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  1. Janet G. Walter
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  2. Hope Gerson
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Correspondence to Janet G. Walter.

Additional information

Preliminary versions of portions of this paper were presented at PME 28 and PME-NA 26.

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Walter, J.G., Gerson, H. Teachers’ Personal Agency: Making Sense of Slope Through Additive Structures. Educ Stud Math 65, 203–233 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10649-006-9048-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10649-006-9048-y

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