BIO

My name is John King and I am from a beautiful small town in New Jersey called Harrington Park. I am currently a sophomore studying and loving Applied Mathematics. Outside of my participation in the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program, I am a peer tutor at Academic Center for Excellence where I tutor for Chemistry and Math. I hope to continue my learning and education in graduate school and to one day become an undergraduate Mathematics professor.

on Peer Tutors: Their Understanding and Teaching of the Derivative

Abstract

The goal of this project is to describe the mathematical and pedagogical knowledge demonstrated by undergraduate mathematics tutors in the context of Calculus 1 and the derivative concept. Knowledge for teaching, specific to academic subject, has a long research history and this project aims to add to this literature by examining the knowledge of non-traditional educators (i.e., undergraduate students who provide tutoring to other undergraduate students). Semi-structured interviews were conducted with four undergraduate students who were currently employed as mathematics tutors at a large research institution in the American Southeast. Using Ball et al.’s (2008) mathematical knowledge for teaching and Zandieh’s (2000) conception of the derivative frameworks as a priori codebooks, interview data were coded for her salient mathematical and pedagogical knowledge. This poster presents the preliminary findings from the analysis of one participant, Hannah who displayed an exemplary ability to communicate her mathematical thinking while continually emphasizing an understanding of underlying conceptual themes.

Keywords: Tutor, Calculus, Derivatives, Mathematics Education