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Author: mesaofficercolloquiumchair

Colloquium – Jere Confrey

Published by mesaofficercolloquiumchair on October 29, 2018

Come support our colloquium event!

November 5th, 2018

3:30 pm colloquium (4:30 pm Q&A)

Aderhold room G5 (224 for Q&A)

“Taking Learning Trajectories to Scale in a Digital Learning System for Middle School Math”

This talk reports on the design and implementation of Math-Mapper6-8, a digital learning system hosting a learning map organized around nine big ideas, learning clusters and constructs.  Underlying each construct is a learning trajectory (LT) and its associated CCSS-M standards. It is accompanied by a diagnostic assessment system for use within classroom instruction showing progress along the LTs.  The talk will focus on applying the validation framework to ratio reasoning and process of continuous validation, stressing the critical role of the interdisciplinary collaboration between learning scientists and psychometricians.

Confrey Colloquium Announcement

Colloquium Announcement: Dr. Michael Oehrtman

Published by mesaofficercolloquiumchair on January 23, 2017

We are excited to announce that Dr. Michael Oehrtman from Oklahoma State University will be visiting next week and giving a colloquium!

When: Tuesday, January 31st 4pm
Where: Aderhold Room 229
What: The talk title and abstract will to be sent later this week

Dr. Oehrtman is also available to talk with students and faculty outside of the scheduled colloquium. Please send us an email to let us know if you would like to join Dr. Oehrtman for lunch, dinner, or discussion outside of the scheduled event.

We look forward to seeing you next week.

Colloquium Announcement: Dr. Jeffrey M. Rabin

Published by mesaofficercolloquiumchair on January 8, 2017

Monday, January 9th, 4pm Room 229, Aderhold Hall

Double negative: Two classroom episodes, two analytic frameworks, and two pedagogical recommendations concerning negative number operations

Abstract:

The teaching and learning of negative integer operations brings into play many important issues in mathematics education. These include the generalization and revision of prior knowledge about natural numbers, the teaching of material that is conventional rather than provable, the use of patterns as a form of justification, and the acceptance of “numbers” whose mathematical reality stems from an axiomatic system rather than a concrete physical model. Anna Sfard has written that “learning about negative numbers involves a transition to a new, incommensurable discourse.”

I will present a tenth-grade classroom episode introducing negative integer exponents, analyzing the teacher’s strategies and the students’ reactions in the framework of the Necessity Principle of Harel’s DNR system, which states: In order for students to learn what we intend to teach them, they must have a need for it, where “need” means intellectual need, not social or economic need. This will be compared and contrasted with a similar episode on negative integer multiplication analyzed by Sfard in terms of her own “commognitive” framework. I will suggest reasons why pattern-based justifications may not address students’ intellectual needs, and alternative pedagogical strategies for promoting student reasoning about new mathematical conventions.

The talk is based on joint work with Evan Fuller and Guershon Harel.

 

 

 

Colloquium Announcement: Dr. Rochelle Gutiérrez

Published by mesaofficercolloquiumchair on October 17, 2016

Please join us for a colloquium with Dr. Rochelle Gutiérrez on Tuesday, October 25th 11:15am–12:15pm in Aderhold Hall Room 520.

Title:
Rehumanizing Mathematics: Should That Be Our Goal?

Abstract:
Mathematics has always been a human endeavor, a way in which we make sense of the world around us and come to appreciate its beauty and our interconnectedness with others, including humans, plants, animals, rocks, and other living beings.  But, school mathematics often presents a different view of this activity and our efforts to get students to do mathematics can be viewed as dehumanizing.  In this talk, I will discuss the subtle (and not so subtle) ways in which mathematics teachers, parents, learners, and researchers can be complicit with dehumanizing practices.  I will also share some of the ways we can heal through reimagining mathematics with an alternate vision.

Dr. Elise Lockwood – Colloquium

Published by mesaofficercolloquiumchair on September 15, 2016

This past Thursday, September 8, 2016, we had the pleasure of hosting Dr. Elise Lockwood from Oregon State University for our first fall colloquium! The video of her talk can be found here. Details on Dr. Lockwood’s talk are below.

Dr. Elise Lockwood introducing her colloquium on September 8, 2016Dr. Elise Lockwood giving the introduction to her fantastic talk
to UGA students and faculty

Title:
Investigating Students’ Generalizing Activity: Two Contrasting Cases from and Undergraduate Combinatorial Context

Abstract:
Dr. Elise Lockwood provides two contrasting cases of students who solved a series of combinatorial tasks that were designed to facilitate generalizing activity. In these cases, each student generated what externally appeared to be the same representation – a general outcome structure that both students spontaneously developed. However, upon further examination, the ways in which the two students’ understood and subsequently used the general representation differed significantly. Lockwood seeks to explain these differences by identifying two types of relating that emerged in the study, and by connecting this relating to Piaget’s notion of reflective abstraction. By comparing and contrasting these students, we gain insight into the kinds of activity that promote both efficacious generalization and robust combinatorial reasoning. Lockwood concludes with implications and directions for further research.

 

Dr. Goldin Colloquium resources

Published by mesaofficercolloquiumchair on October 9, 2015

Hi all!

We’d like to thank everyone who attended Dr. Gerald Goldin’s colloquium earlier this week. He would like to thank everyone who came. He has also provided resources that might be of interest if you are interested in his line of research. We will upload the video as soon as we can.

Goldin 2014 Perspectives on Emotion proofs for Pekrun & Linnenbrink, Intl-Handbook

Goldin Epstein Schorr Warner 2011 ZDM 43(4) 547-560

Goldin 2003 Developing Complex Understandings

Goldin 2002 Meta-Affect and Belief Structures

DeBellis Goldin 2006 Affect and Meta Affect

Dr. Gerald Goldin Colloquium Announcement

Published by mesaofficercolloquiumchair on September 24, 2015

We are happy to have our second colloquium with Dr. Gerald Goldin from Rutgers University. Here are the details of his colloquium:

Goldin Banner

Some Perspectives on Affect and Engagement in Mathematics Teaching and Learning

Monday, October 5, 2015; 12:00NN-1:00PM, Aderhold 116

The affective domain is receiving increased attention as researchers focus on obstacles and affordances of student engagement with mathematics. In this talk, I shall discuss some important affective constructs which relate directly to mathematical teaching and learning.  Among the ideas considered are the importance and function of emotional feelings during mathematical activity, the idea that information important to learning is encoded affectively (interactions with cognition), the essential and transformative role of meta-affect (affect about affect, affect about cognition about affect, and the monitoring and regulation of affect), beliefs about mathematics and self-efficacy beliefs, students’ (longer-term) motivational orientations, various “in the moment” motivating desires that can foster (or inhibit) students’ mathematical engagement, and several proposed “engagement structures.” Some broader implications are suggested for mathematics teacher preparation, for our own teaching, and for the wider mathematics community.

Light refreshments will be served.

Meet and Greet with Graduate Students for Lunch on October 5

Please email mesacolloquium@uga.edu if you would like to go to the Meet and Greet.

If you have any questions, feel free to email us.

We hope to see you there!