Scott A Courtney

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Verified

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• PhD
• Mathematics Education at Kent State University

The purpose of this study was to learn from university faculty with a doctorate in mathematics education from across the world about how programs in mathematics education should prepare doctoral students for research and teaching in mathematics education. Online survey responses indicated that 99 mathematics education university faculty from 33 dif...

What are the essential components of a doctorate program in mathematics education or didactics of mathematics concerning research, coursework, seminars, and collaboration? The purpose of this study was to learn from doctoral students across the world about how their programs in mathematics education are preparing them for research and teaching in m...

Across multiple countries the term “big ideas” of mathematics has become a construct advocated as important for teachers’ mathematical knowledge. Indeed, several policy or position statement documents about math learning in the United States (U.S.) have stated that “big ideas” of math is a crucial construct for teacher knowledge. With this study we...

Technology has become an integral part of the world we live in; however, students use technology in vastly different ways than educators did in their own youth. Therefore, educators must adapt and make the integration of technology a prevalent part of the mathematics curriculum, while simultaneously facilitating new learning opportunities. Technolo...

We examine teacher induction programs through a systematic review of existing international literature from 2012 to 2022. Three of the most comprehensive online databases for educational research (Edu- cation Research Complete, ERIC EBSCO, ScienceDirect) were considered for the search, which resulted in eight documents being retrieved and considere...

The coronavirus pandemic impacted all aspects of society, causing countries and local communities to close workplaces, move schools to remote instruction, limit in-person contact, cancel public gatherings, and restrict travel. Attempts to mitigate COVID-19 through remote instruction provided unique opportunities for researchers to examine the resou...

The goals of this working group will be to: 1) build a shared definition of what it means to be “at the frontier” in mathematics education and identify several current and emerging frontiers ripe for examination; 2) discuss the theoretical/methodological frameworks used by contributing researchers and other working group members to examine teachers...

In this article, we utilize a networking of theories approach to connect the documentational approach to didactics (DAD) and a theory of meanings to explore and develop models of two tertiary teachers' understandings of developmental mathematics and its students, and the resources each teacher utilizes to support instruction. We illustrate how teac...

The coronavirus pandemic has impacted all aspects of society. As the virus spread across the globe, countries and local communities closed workplaces, moved schools to remote instruction, limited in-person contact, cancelled public gatherings, and restricted travel. At one stage, over 91.3% of students worldwide, from pre-primary through tertiary e...

In this report, we utilize a networking of theories approach to connect the documentational approach to didactics (DAD) and a theory of meanings to explore and develop models of two tertiary teachers' understandings of developmental mathematics, its students, and the resources each teacher utilizes to support instruction. We illustrate how teachers...

In this report, we network the documentational approach to didactics and a theory of meanings to explore and develop models of one tertiary teacher's (Evelyn's) understandings of remedial mathematics, its students, and the resources she utilizes to support instruction. In addition, we discuss the affective aspects of the schemes of meanings that ca...

The purpose of this article is to articulate and explore strategies that foster a learning community for disadvantaged and/or non-traditional learners enrolled in developmental mathematics at the tertiary (or post-secondary) level. An extensive literature review indicated that immersing such learners in a “caring community”—one that contributes to...

The coronavirus pandemic has impacted all aspects of society. As the virus spread across the globe, countries and local communities closed workplaces, moved schools to remote instruction, limited in-person contact, cancelled public gatherings, and restricted travel. At one stage, over 91.3% of students worldwide, from pre-primary through tertiary e...

In order to promote geometric understanding, teachers frequently use hands-on activities. Such activities can be used to expound upon the declarative statements and theorems of geometry. Using a compass, straightedge, and protractor, students are able to actively build conceptions involving bisectors, midpoints, and perpendicular lines. Additionall...

Although prior research, documents, and teachers' experiences have focused on differentiating a single or a sequence of lessons, the study reported here examined teachers' attempts to differentiate every class, every day, over an entire semester. The study focused on the ideas of differentiation presented by Tomlinson to examine how mathematics tea...

The study of matrix operations and applications is required for students planning to take advanced courses, such as calculus, advanced statistics, or discrete mathematics. Furthermore, matrices appear on the ACT test and both SAT Mathematics Level 1 and Mathematics Level 2 subject tests. The student-centered activity presented here utilizes hands-o...

The study presented here focused on the ideas of differentiation presented by Tomlinson to examine how mathematics and special education teachers address differentiated instruction in remote learning environments. The study coordinated the documentational approach to didactics and Thompson and Harel’s theory of meanings to examine teachers’ meaning...

This report examines one teacher's attempts to differentiate instruction every day, in a dynamic teaching and learning environment. The report is part of a larger study that utilised a network of theories approach, coordinating the documentational approach to didactics (DAD) and Thompson and Harel's theory of meanings, to examine teachers' understa...

This report examines one teacher's attempts to differentiate instruction every day, in a dynamic teaching and learning environment. The report is part of a larger study that utilized a network of theories approach, coordinating the documentational approach to didactics (DAD) and Thompson and Harel's theory of meanings, to examine teachers' understa...

Article History In the U.S., state adopted or developed college-and career-ready mathematics standards, including the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics, not only impact districts, students, and their teachers, but also university teacher preparation programs. In order to attain and sustain Common Core's vision of developing mathematically...

The authors present a framework for use by: (1) teachers as they select, (re-)design, modify, or create mathematical tasks for a lesson, including out-of-class assignments, or a sequence of lessons; and (2) researchers to analyze the quality, diversity, and complexity of tasks in a lesson or sequence of lessons. The Task Progressions Framework inte...

Studying teachers’ work with resources leads to wide-ranging research questions requiring diverse theoretical frameworks and, consequently, various methodologies. Characterizing the dialectical relation between theoretical and methodological choices is critical. Teachers’ work with resources and professional development appear intertwined, opening...

The author describes interactions with teachers as they utilize the Task Progressions Framework (Courtney & Glasnović Gracin, 2019) to develop a sequence of mathematics lessons. As described in Courtney and Glasnović Gracin (2019), the Task Progressions Framework integrates components of existing task analysis frameworks, notions of ‘rich’ tasks, d...

In the U.S., professional learning and sharing opportunities that are flexible, free, meaningful, and focused on mathematics teaching and learning are particularly difficult to find for mathematics teachers working in rural school districts. In this report, I share results from the first seven months of a project designed to provide a digital space...

As schools and teachers in the U.S. fine-tune their implementation of mathematics standards promoting college and career readiness, the number of support resources continues to expand. One resource focus experiencing significant growth involves sample items and tasks asserting alignment with the college and career ready mathematical content and pra...

In this report, four secondary school mathematics teachers and one university mathematics teacher educator present a tool designed to evaluate the usefulness and relevance of online resources at helping teachers develop practical conceptions of mathematical habits of mind as described by the Common Core's Standards for Mathematical Practice. Descri...

The author describes interactions with two middle grades (grades 6-8, student ages 11-14 years) and three secondary school (grades 9-12, student ages 14-18 years) mathematics teachers designed to increase and enhance teachers' content knowledge and transform their classroom instruction by embedding the author (i.e., mathematics teacher educator) in...

Planning for a lesson has long been recognized as a primary factor impacting the efficacy of instruction. Significant to such planning are the resources used which shape the mathematics content and processes teachers intend for students to engage in and develop. The author presents results from 154 Grades 6-12 (student ages 11-18 years) purposively...

There have been many recent policy and program changes in K-12 education across the United States, particularly in area of mathematics. Changes, such as the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics and standards-aligned year-end summative assessments, require an increase in student-centered, cognitively demanding activities in the classroom. The...

Over the past two decades, researchers in mathematics teacher education have identified characteristics of high quality professional development (PD). This report describes an investigation of a common approach to PD with secondary mathematics teachers, providing teachers with opportunities to experience reform-oriented model lessons as students of...

This research study explored pre-service teachers' (PST) reflections of their student teaching experiences through AHA moments. Participants included 37 pre-service teachers enrolled in mathematics and science student teaching seminars. Qualitative methods were used to analyze PSTs' written and verbal responses to questions regarding AHA experience...

Trigonometric concepts and ideas continue to be an important component of the high school mathematics curriculum. In spite of its importance to both high school and advanced mathematics and science, research has shown that trigonometry remains a difficult topic for both students and teachers. In this article, we describe a sequence of activities de...

Formal lesson plans have long been touted as a best practice in mathematics teacher preparation. Experienced teachers frequently view formal lesson plans as nonessential to the planning, implementation, and evaluation of instruction. We discuss results from an online survey designed to make the perspectives of 60 prospective and practicing mathemat...

Faithful implementation of the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics requires states, districts, and teachers to not only design instruction that meets the new content standards, but also pay close attention to the eight Standards for Mathematical Practice that are interwoven within these Standards. The Ohio Resident Educator Program partners...

As states, districts, schools, faculty, and other germane stakeholders prepare for full implementation of the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM), the number of resources designed to guide and support this transition continues to expand in both breadth and depth. Along with changes in mathematics content standards and their progress...

The purpose of this study was to explore middle grade mathematics students’ uses of scaffolding and its effectiveness in helping students solve non-routine problems. Students were given two different types of scaffolds to support their learning of sixth grade geometry concepts. First, students solved a math task by using a four square graphic organ...

The purpose of this study was to explore middle grade mathematics stu-dents' uses of scaffolding and its effectiveness in helping students solve non-routine problems. Students were given two different types of scaffolds to support their learning of sixth grade geometry concepts. First, students solved a math task by using a four square graphic orga...

The movement to adopt the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics impacts not only school districts and their teachers, but also university teacher preparation programs. In order to productively implement and sustain the Common Core's vision of developing mathematically competent citizens, mathematics teacher preparation programs must support p...

This report describes pre-service secondary mathematics teachers’ engagements with problems designed for teachers to reflect on what it means to demonstrate the Common Core Standards for Mathematical Practice in written work. Pre-service teachers were provided with problem aligned to the Common Core Standards for Mathematical Content and were asked...

This study examines the impact of field trip experiences on teachers? mathematical problem posing. Teachers from a large urban public school system in the Midwest participated in a professional development program that incorporated experiential learning with mathematical problem formulation experiences. During 2 weeks of summer 2011, 68 teachers fr...

Although the idea of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) has been elaborated in numerous studies, there has been little clarification of what constitutes it or research into its development. Furthermore, studies that have investigated PCK, or mathematical knowledge for teaching (MKT) as introduced by Thompson and Thompson, have historically focused...

Although the idea of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) has been elaborated in numerous studies, there has been little clarification of what constitutes it or research into its development. Furthermore, studies that have investigated PCK, or mathematical knowledge for teaching as introduced by Thompson and Thompson (1996), have historically focuse...