Category Archives: Math

One mother’s engagement in her daughter’s self-initiated mathematical activity at home: A case study

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Presenter/Guest Speaker: Sukhwinder Kaur Masters Student, Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy, Faculty of Education, UBC
Date: June 8th, 2022
Host: Dr Cynthia Nicol

Sukhwinder presented her capstone project titled “One mother’s engagement in her daughter’s self-initiated mathematical activity at home: A case study” which is a two-part study on how children interact with mathematics in an informal setting like the home and what role parents play in that interaction. Sukhwinder takes on two roles in this study, a mother, and a researcher.

In the first part of the study, Sukhwinder observed and recorded her daughter’s self-initiated math-related tasks. She presented some observations of her daughter’s activities and the analysis of the mathematical content in those activities. For the second part, her focus moves from the child to the mother. Sukhwinder will be reanalysing the data to focus on herself as a mother, researcher, and mathematics educator. She will analyse how her beliefs could have influenced the way she engaged with her daughter and how her input could have changed her daughter’s activities.

Below are a few slides from the presentation

Find the complete presentation here.

Restorying Mathematics: Mathematical Labyrinths

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Presenter/Guest Speaker: Dr Susan Gerofsky & Dr Cynthia Nicol, Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy, Faculty of Education, UBC
Date: April 14th, 2022
Host: Dr Cynthia Nicol

Susan and Cynthia shared about their mathematics community project where they design and build labyrinths with the Indigenous community of Horby island. The labyrinths are the first in a larger project with the goal of “restorying intergenerational community relationships with mathematics and art”. They shared the history of labyrinths and how the project brings together the community, mathematics, and the arts (art, music, dance etc).

Below are a few slides from their presentation.

The full presentation can be found here.

Reconsidering the Incorporation of Computational Thinking and Coding in Mathematics Education

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Presenter/Guest Speaker: Erica Huang, UBC Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy Doctoral Student
Date: March 31st, 2022
Host: Dr Cynthia Nicol

In this SyMETRI session, Erica first shared highlights from her master’s thesis research. By surveying, observing, and interviewing BC secondary mathematics teachers, the study focused on teachers’ perspectives on incorporating computational thinking (CT) and involving coding in mathematics classrooms. Results showed that most teachers understand CT as being about problem-solving skills. Teachers found that CT and coding activities elicit a high-level engagement, provide different contexts to discuss mathematics concepts, and are accessible to a wide range of students. Erica then presented some questions for possible future research directions as starting points for the group discussion.

Erica’s full master’s thesis can be found here.

Please find below some excerpts from Erica’s presentation

All of Erica’s presentation is available here.

Chinese Immigrant Parent and the BC Math School System

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Presenter/Guest Speaker: Qiaochu (Joy) Xu, UBC Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy Masters Student
Date: March 10th, 2022
Host: Dr Cynthia Nicol

How Chinese Immigrant Parents’ Expectations and Aspirations for their Children’s Math Learning Interact with British Columbia’s School Systems and Curricula

In this SyMETRI session, Qiaochu (Joy) presented her M.Ed. Capstone project about the Chinese immigrant parents’ expectations and aspirations for their children’s math learning interacting with British Columbia’s School Systems and Curricula. She shared the voices from the Chinese immigrant community, exploring what they feel is working well and what seems to be lacking, and where they place their children in the two education and value systems of China and Canada. Chinese parents in this study have a relatively high level of engagement in their children’s math education, devoting themselves to helping their children succeed inside and outside the school domain.

The Chinese parents in this study suggested that their children would benefit from faster-paced math classes and increased challenge to the current level. The four families that participated in this study hope to learn better ways for understanding the curriculum and to find effective ways to communicate with their child’s math teacher.

During the presentation, other issues faced by immigrant parents were also raised. Some of these were lacking language proficiency to provide homework support and peer pressure from members of their Chinese immigrant community and the broader Canadian community.

This interactive presentation offered an opportunity for participating educators to share their thoughts and experiences when working with students from immigrant families.

Poster used when recruiting participants

Sense-making in Learning Mathematics across Languages and Countries

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Presenter/Guest Speaker: Tsubasa Saito, UBC Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy Doctoral Candidate
Date: February 24th, 2022
Host: Dr Cynthia Nicol

During the session, Tsubasa shared some of his findings from his doctoral dissertation that explores how multilingual students learn/do mathematics and how they interpret word problems in different languages. The study focuses on multilingual students who simultaneously learn at two different schools in two different languages.

The interviews with 14 multilingual students learning in a Canadian school and a weekend Japanese school, show that some students believe there is no difference, other than languages, in learning mathematics between the two schools, whereas others describe learning mathematics as “deep” in the Japanese school, contrasting to “wide” in Canadian schools. While Japanese mathematics classrooms often explore mathematical concepts in the class that is characterized by a problem-centered approach (Takahashi, 2021), according to the students, Canadian mathematics is more applicable to real life.

These contrasting perspectives can be explained by different features of curricula and pedagogies between the two countries. Additionally, their discourses in the mathematical tasks support the idea of suspension of sense-making (Schoenfeld, 1991), and the students irregularly suspend their sense-making when creating the word problems. Lastly, this study also confirmed that students utilized their fluid and flexible language repertoire to learn/do mathematics.

 

Discussion: Japanese math is "deep & narrow"

Discussion: Possible reasons why Japanese mathematics is “deep & narrow” for students

Discussion: Japanese math "shallow & wide"

Discussion: Possible reasons why Japanese mathematics is NOT “shallow & wide” for the students

 

Reference
Schoenfeld, A. H. (1991). On mathematics as sense-making: An informal attack on the unfortunate divorce of formal and informal mathematics. In J. F. Voss, D. N. Perkins, & J. W. Segal (Eds.), Informal reasoning and education (pp. 311–343). New York: Routledge.
Takahashi, A. (2021). Teaching mathematics through problem-solving: A pedagogical approach from Japan. New York: Routledge.

Teaching Mathematics in Rural and Indigenous Communities

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Presenter/Guest Speaker: Ann Gregson
Date/Time: July 30, 2019,  1:15 – 2:45pm
Venue: 2125 Main Mall, Scarfe 1223
Host: Dr Cynthia Nicol
In this SyMETRI session, Ann presented a reference booklet for teaching mathematics in remote Indigenous communities as part of  her M. Ed. Capstone project. In her presentation, Ann shared a number of considerations for non-Indigenous mathematics teachers who work with Indigenous students. Using “Medicine Wheel” as a framework, Ann provided an overview of some pedagogies, including culturally relevant pedagogy and land-based pedagogy, for teachers to practice in their mathematics classrooms citing specific examples of how mathematics lessons might be Indigenized.
Prior to enrolling in the M. Ed program, Ann taught in the James Bay Cree Nation community of Wemindji, Quebec as an elementary homeroom teacher.

Photo from Ann’s presentation: Grade two students exploring solids at Joy Otteryes Rainbow Memorial School in Wemindji, Quebec.

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Mathematics, Archeology, Time, and Music

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Presenter/Guest Speaker: Sara de Rose
Date/Time: April 18,2:15 – 4:15pm
Venue: 2125 Main Mall, Scarfe 1223
Host: Dr Cynthia Nicol
This SyMETRI session featured Sara de Rose. Sara invented Musicircle, a tool that teaches modern music theory using geometric shapes and a sequence of seven numbers. She invented Musicircle years before a 3000-year-old Mesopotamian tablet was understood to relate to music
 In fact, this ancient tablet portrays the relationship between numbers, music, and geometry that Sara created in her Musicircle! Her work is endorsed internationally.
This interactive presentation allowed participants to create their own number circles to explore some fascinating relationships.
Thanks to all attendees!!
Images from Sara’s presentation session:
Please visit Sara’s website for more information

Design, Landscape Architecture and Youth

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Presenter/Guest Speaker: Prof. Daniel Roehr, School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, UBC

Date/Time: March 13 2019, 12-30-2:30pm

Venue: Scarfe Room 1209, UBC

Host: Dr Cynthia Nicol

The SyMETRI organising team held another thrilling session with Prof. Daniel Roehr. 
Prof. Roehr presented on GreenSkinsLab and issues related to landscape architecture, science and mathematics – particularly around innovative projects that improve ecological spaces and public open spaces.

Prof. Roehr is a professor at UBC and Founder/Director of greenskins lab, a research group at  UBC School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture. The lab disseminates information on urban design retrofits and new approaches that improve the ecological functions of public open spaces. For more information: http://www.greenskinslab.sala.ubc.ca/

Prof. Roehr’s recent projects also include the use of concept/ideation and design process examples as teaching tools for young designers. His research draws on his international practice as a landscape architect in Japan, Europe, China and North America.

Thanks to all attended!!

 

 

 

Mathematical collaborative engagement through using mobile technology

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Presenter/Guest Speaker: Mina Sedaghatjou (PhD), Sessional Instructor at UBC and research associate in computational thinking in STEAM education at Western University, Ontario (Canada).

Date/Time: Wednesday, February 21, 2019, 12:30 – 1:30 pm

Venue: Scarfe Room 1209

Host: Dr Cynthia Nicol

Dr Sedaghatjou describes her presentation as follows:

In this presentation, I shared my findings from one of my studies that explored how when a group of young children come together to engage in negotiation about mathematical ideas and activities as they draw on each other’s cultural experiences for a shared understanding of mathematical meanings. This study considers how mobile technologies, along with children’s collaborative engagements, can enhance mathematical learning. We adapted the theory of touchscreen-based interactions and utilized StudioCode software to better understand children’s collaborative practices and how they engage in mathematical activity using touchscreen-based devices. Our ideas emerge from children’s use of an iPad application called TouchCounts, which aims to develop number.

Culturally Responsive Mathematics Education and Chambers’ Curriculum of Place

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Presenter/Guest Speaker: Amanda Fritzlan, 3rd Year EDCP Doctoral student

Date/Time: January 30, 2019, 12:30-1:30 pm

Venue: Scarfe Room 1209, UBC

Host: Dr Cynthia Nicol

Amanda describes her presentation as follows:

For this paper, I created a conversation between recent research into culturally responsive mathematics and Canadian curriculum theorist Chambers’ (2008) proposed a curriculum of place. Chambers’ challenges education researchers to write from the places where they live and work. She describes four conceptual realms: a different sense of time, enskillment, education of attention, and wayfinding.

Chambers (2008) connects a different sense of time to her realization that many people had lived where she lives, in southern Alberta, before her, and that it takes people a very long time to learn how to live with the land in a way that they are nourished by the land. Enskillment, the second element of Chambers’ curriculum of place, assumes that people are dependent on the land and communities where they live. Learned skills become part of who a person is as they are developed in relation to surviving in place.“Through education of attention, each generation learns to notice the clues to a place, the clues through which each generation must learn how to live here, and the clues by which what it means to live here, may be revealed” (Chambers, 2008, p. 122). Wayfinding, the final realm this conception of a curriculum of place, involves learning about places as you go, learning from the land, and through multiple literacies (eg. singing, dancing, storytelling, hunting). Each of these four elements of Chambers’ curriculum of place creates a vocabulary for thinking about interactions and common threads between different culturally responsive mathematics education researchers’ work.

Reference   

Chambers, C. (2008). Where are we? Finding common ground in a curriculum of place. Journal of the Canadian Association for Curriculum Studies,6(2), 113–128.