Wilson

There will be time to meet and talk with the candidate after his talk.
Mathematical and Pedagogical Understandings of
Secondary Teachers: Functions and Graph Theory

By
Skip Wilson
Department of Mathematics
Virginia Tech

Abstract

I will discuss how secondary teachers' mathematical understandings are related to their teaching. In the context of this discussion, I will describe what I believe is meant by innovative teaching. Results from two recent studies will illustrate how deep mathematical understanding enables teachers to teach in innovative ways. I will also discuss why it might be easier to influence teachers' conceptions about teaching in the context of mathematical topics with which teachers are unfamiliar, such as graph theory.