Browse > Article
http://dx.doi.org/10.7468/jksmed.2022.25.3.189

Geometry: Do High School Mathematics Teachers really Need it?  

Cox, Wesley (Department of Statistics, Iowa State University)
Publication Information
Research in Mathematical Education / v.25, no.3, 2022 , pp. 189-199 More about this Journal
Abstract
A debate about the importance of geometry courses has existed for years. The questions have revolved around its significance to students and teachers alike. This study looks to determine whether a teacher taking a college-level geometry course has a positive relationship with their students' algebraic reasoning skills. Using data from the High School Longitudinal Study 2009 (HSLS09: Ingels et al., 2011, 2014), it was determined that 9th-grade teachers who took a college-level geometry course had a significant positive association with their students' 11th-grade algebraic reasoning scores. This study suggests that teachers who take geometry during college have a lasting effect on their students. The implications of these findings and how they may affect higher education are discussed.
Keywords
geometry; teacher training; mathematical knowledge for teaching; HSLS:09;
Citations & Related Records
연도 인용수 순위
  • Reference
1 Browning, C., Edson, A., Kimani, P., & Aslan-Tutak, F. (2014). Mathematical content knowledge for teaching elementary mathematics: A focus on geometry and measurement. The Mathematics Enthusiast, 11(2), 333-383. https://doi.org/10.54870/1551-3440.1306   DOI
2 Conference Board of the Mathematical Sciences. (2012). Issues in mathematics education: The mathematical education of teachers II (Vol. 17). Mathematical Association of America.
3 Ball, D. L., Thames, M. H., & Phelps, G. (2008). Content knowledge for teaching: What makes it special? Journal of Teacher Education, 59(5), 389-407.   DOI
4 Swafford, J. O., Jones, G. A., & Thornton, C. A. (1997). Increased knowledge in geometry and instructional practice. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 28(4), 467-483. https://doi.org/10.5951/jresematheduc.28.4.0467   DOI
5 Wayne, A., J., & Youngs, P. (2003). Teacher characteristics and student achievement gains: A review. Review of Educational Research, 73(1), 89-122.   DOI
6 Usiskin, Z. (1980). What should not be in the algebra and geometry curricula of average college-bound students? The Mathematics Teacher, 73(6), 413-424. https://doi.org/10.5951/MT.73.6.0413   DOI
7 Mousoulides, N., & Gagatsis, A. (2004). Algebraic and geometric approach in function problem solving. International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education, 3, 385-392. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED489596
8 Gonzalez, G., & Herbst, P. G. (2006). Competing arguments for the geometry course: Why were American high school students supposed to study geometry in the twentieth century. The International Journal for the History of Mathematics Education, 1(1), 7-33.
9 Jones, K. (2000). Teacher knowledge and professional development in geometry. Proceedings of the British Society for Research into Learning Mathematics, 20(3), 109-114.
10 Kaput, J. J. (2008). What Is algebra? What is algebraic reasoning? In J. Kaput J., D. W. Carraher, & M. L. Blanton, Algebra in the early grades (1st ed., pp. 5-18). Routledge.
11 Mullis, I. V. S., Martin, M. O., Ruddock, G. J., O'Sullivan, C. Y., Arora, A., & Erberber, E. (2005). TIMSS 2007 assessment frameworks. In International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement. International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED494654
12 Murray, E., & Star, J. R. (2013). What do secondary preservice mathematics teachers need to know? Content courses connecting secondary and tertiary mathematics. Notices of the American Mathematical Society, 60(10), 1297. https://doi.org/10.1090/noti1048   DOI
13 Novak, E., & Tassell, J. L. (2017). Studying preservice teacher math anxiety and mathematics performance in geometry, word, and non-word problem solving. Learning and Individual Differences, 54, 20-29. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2017.01.005   DOI
14 Sun, S., Pan, W., & Wang, L. L. (2010). A comprehensive review of effect size reporting and interpreting practices in academic journals in education and psychology. Journal of Educational Psychology, 102(4), 989-1004. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0019507   DOI
15 Aslan-Tutak, F., & Adams, T. L. (2015). A study of geometry content knowledge of elementary preservice teachers. International Electronic Journal of Elementary Education, 7(3), 301-318.
16 Dindyal, J. (2004). Algebraic thinking in geometry at high school level: Students' use of variables and unknowns. In I. Putt, R. Faragher & M. McLean (Eds.), Mathematics education for the third millennium: Towards 2010 (Proceedings of the 27th annual conference of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia, Townsville) (pp. 183-190). MERGA, Inc.
17 Battista, M. T. (2007). The development of geometric and spatial thinking. In F. K. Lester, Jr. (Ed.), Second handbook of research on mathematics teaching and learning (Vol. 2, pp. 843-908). Information Age Pub.
18 Blanton, M. L., & Kaput, J. J. (2005). Characterizing a classroom practice that promotes algebraic reasoning. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 36(5), 412-446. https://doi.org/10.2307/30034944   DOI
19 Carpenter, T. P., Fennema, E., Peterson, P. L., & Carey, D. A. (1988). Teachers' pedagogical content knowledge of students' problem solving in elementary arithmetic. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 19(5), 385-401. https://doi.org/10.5951/jresematheduc.19.5.0385   DOI
20 Choi, K. M., & Cox, W. (2020). College coursework on high school teacher performance. A paper presented at the 2020 International Conference of KSME, Seoul, Korea.
21 Ginsburg, A., Cooke, G., Leinwand, S., Noell, J., & Pollock, E. (2005). Reassessing U.S. international mathematics performance: New findings from the 2003 TIMSS and PISA. In American Institutes for Research. The American Institutes for Research. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED491624
22 IBM. (2021). SPSS Statistics (Version 28) [Mac]. IBM Corporation.
23 Ingels, S., J., Pratt, D., J., Herget, D., R., Burns, L., J., Dever, J., A., Ottem, R., Rogers, J., E., Jin, Y., & Leinwand, S. (2011). High school longitudinal study of 2009 (HSLS:09) base-year data file documentation. U.S. Department of Education: National Center for Educational Statistics. http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch