September
2, 2003
Dear Ms. Hirsch,
First, I would like to offer my sincere appreciation for awarding
me a Big XII Faculty Fellowship for the 2002-2003 academic year. As
you may recall, I choose to work with a colleague of mine, Dr. Mitch
Nathan, from the University of Colorado. Dr. Nathan is in the College
of Education and his focus is on complex problem solving and mathematics
education. As this report will show, the 10 days or so spent in Boulder
were, and continue to be, a very productive scholarly experience.
The primary goal of my visit to the University of Colorado was to
complete a manuscript that Dr. Nathan and I began almost a year ago.
We originally intended this work to be presented at the Annual Meeting
of the American Educational Research Association in Chicago during
the organization’s April meeting. We not only accomplished that
task but were able to submit our paper to the prestigious journal
AERJ (American Educational Research Journal). The manuscript is currently
under review. Our initial goal of presenting our work at AERA was
realized on April 24 when we presented the following paper:
Nathan, M. and Petrosino, A. J. (April, 2003). Views of Algebra Development
Among Pre-Service Teachers with Advanced and Basic Mathematics Knowledge:
Evidence For
Expert Blind Spot. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American
Educational Research Association. Chicago, Il.
Division: Division C: Section 6: Cognitive, Social, and Motivational
Processes
A secondary goal of my visit was to complete two additional manuscripts.
The hope was that Dr. Nathan would be able to provide some assistance
and guidance. This goal was also accomplished as I completed the two
manuscripts and both were submitted and are currently under peer review.
Nathan and Petrosino (Submitted) Expert Blind Spot Among Pre-Service
Mathematics and Science Teachers. American Educational Research Journal.
Petrosino (submitted). Integrating pedagogical content knowledge
in project-based instruction: A case study of an experienced teacher.
Journal of Science Education and Technology.
Finally, there are a number of colleagues that I have at the University
of Colorado in addition to Dr. Nathan and I was able to spend some
productive time with each of them. Briefly, I had a couple of conversations
with Dr. Hilda Borko who is an expert in the area of teacher cognition
and pedagogical content knowledge. Conversations with her led directly
to some of my thoughts which are articulated in a recent paper.
I add a few meetings with Dr. Valerie Othero, an assistant professor
of science education. Our discussions centered around The University
of Texas at Austin’s preservice teacher program in secondary
mathematics and science education known as UTeach and the efforts
that the University of Colorado were expending on trying to replicate
the model at their institution. Such topics as collaboration between
the College of Education and College of Natural Sciences, core sequence
of courses, ways of implementing technology into pre service teacher
education were all discussed. These conversations were very useful
and productive and allowed me an opportunity to help a colleague address
some of the challenges that we faced and overcame with the UTeach
program.
Finally, I had a wonderful afternoon with Dr. Michael Eisenhart from
the Department of Engineering. Dr. Eisenhart does some very interesting
work with the use of computers and three dimensional modeling of everyday
objects. He uses children’s creativity and inquisitive nature
to create contexts which introduce high level mathematics and science
to middle and high school students. He showed me around his new lab,
we spoke of some possible collaborations, and allowed me to participate
in a classroom visit with a local area high school class.