MATHEMATICS TEACHERS' VIEWS ABOUT TEACHING GENERALIZATION OF NUMBER PATTERNS

Abstract

The present study reports on middle school mathematics teachers' views about teaching generalization of number patterns. Teachers' approaches to teach generalizing and their point of views on using strategies were also examined. Interviews were conducted with sixteen middle school mathematics teachers. Data qualitatively analyzed in terms of Radford's (2008) architecture of algebraic pattern generalization theoretical framework. Analysis of the data indicated that teachers' uses of representations were not effective and teachers' subject matter knowledge on generalization of number patterns is weak. It was found that teachers' commonly used strategy is trial-error. Findings also suggest that although teachers’ mostly use strategies and examples in teaching process, they did not use them in order to develop students' understanding, mathematical thinking and reasoning. 

Keywords

• Generalizing number patterns,task design,task implementation

References

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