Chia-ling Chen

Bio: Chia-ling Chen is an academic researcher from University of Michigan. The author has contributed to research in topics: Gesture & Mathematical proof. The author has an hindex of 5, co-authored 6 publications receiving 253 citations.

Using comics-based representations of teaching, and technology, to bring practice to teacher education courses

Abstract: This article situates comic-based representations of teaching in the long history of tensions between theory and practice in teacher education. The article argues that comics can be semiotic resources in learning to teach and suggests how information technologies can support experiences with comics in university mathematics methods courses that (a) help learners see the mathematical work of teaching in lessons they observe, (b) allow candidates to explore tactical decision-making in teaching, and (c) support preservice teachers in rehearsing classroom interactions.

The interplay among gestures, discourse, and diagrams in students’ geometrical reasoning

Abstract: This study explores interactions with diagrams that are involved in geometrical reasoning; more specifically, how students publicly make and justify conjectures through multimodal representations of diagrams. We describe how students interact with diagrams using both gestural and verbal modalities, and examine how such multimodal interactions with diagrams reveal their reasoning. We argue that when limited information is given in a diagram, students make use of gestural and verbal expressions to compensate for those limitations as they engage in making and proving conjectures. The constraints of a diagram, gestures and linguistic systems are semiotic resources that students may use to engage in geometrical reasoning.

Teachers’ perspectives on “authentic mathematics” and the two-column proof form

Abstract: We investigate experienced high school geometry teachers’ perspectives on “authentic mathematics” and the much-criticized two-column proof form. A videotaped episode was shown to 26 teachers gathered in five focus groups. In the episode, a teacher allows a student doing a proof to assume a statement is true without immediately justifying it, provided he return to complete the argument later. Prompted by this episode, the teachers in our focus groups revealed two apparently contradictory dispositions regarding the use of the two-column proof form in the classroom. For some, the two-column form is understood to prohibit a move like that shown in the video. But for others, the form is seen as a resource enabling such a move. These contradictory responses are warranted in competing but complementary notions, grounded on the corpus of teacher responses, that teachers hold about the nature of authentic mathematical activity when proving.

Instructional situations and students’ opportunities to reason in the high school geometry class

Abstract: This manuscript is part of the final report of the NSF grant CAREER 0133619 “Reasoning in high school geometry classrooms: Understanding the practical logic underlying the teacher’s work” to the first author.All opinions are those of the authors and do not represent the views of the National Science Foundation.

Hand and Mind: What Gestures Reveal about Thought

Abstract: Hand and Mind: What Gestures Reveal about Thought. David McNeill. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1992. 416 pp.

Remarks on the Foundations of Mathematics. By L. Wittgenstein. Edited by G. H. Von Wright, R. Rhees and G. E. M. Anscombe. Translated by G. E. M. Anscombe. Pp. 400. 37s. 6d. 1956. (Basil Blackwell, Oxford)

Abstract: Wittgenstein's work remains, undeniably, now, that off one of those few philosophers who will be read by all future generations.

Recent research on geometry education: an ICME-13 survey team report

Abstract: This survey on the theme of Geometry Education (including new technologies) focuses chiefly on the time span since 2008. Based on our review of the research literature published during this time span (in refereed journal articles, conference proceedings and edited books), we have jointly identified seven major threads of contributions that span from the early years of learning (pre-school and primary school) through to post-compulsory education and to the issue of mathematics teacher education for geometry. These threads are as follows: developments and trends in the use of theories; advances in the understanding of visuo spatial reasoning; the use and role of diagrams and gestures; advances in the understanding of the role of digital technologies; advances in the understanding of the teaching and learning of definitions; advances in the understanding of the teaching and learning of the proving process; and, moving beyond traditional Euclidean approaches. Within each theme, we identify relevant research and also offer commentary on future directions.

Studying the Practical Rationality of Mathematics Teaching: What Goes Into “Installing” a Theorem in Geometry?

Abstract: This article presents a way of studying the rationality that mathematics teachers utilize in managing the teaching of theorems in high-school geometry. More generally, the study illustrates how to elicit the rationality that guides teachers in handling the demands of teaching practice. In particular, it illustrates how problematic classroom scenarios represented through animations of cartoon characters can facilitate thought experiments among groups of practitioners. Relying on video records from four study group sessions with experienced teachers of geometry, the study shows how these records can be parsed and inspected to identify categories of perception and appreciation with which experienced practitioners relate to an instance of an instructional situation. The study provides initial evidence that supports a theoretically derived hypothesis, namely that teachers of geometry as a group recognize as normative the expectation that a teacher will sanction or endorse those propositions that are to be reme...

Research on Practical Rationality: Studying the justification of actions in mathematics teaching

Abstract: Building on our earlier work conceptualizing teaching as the management of instructional exchanges, we lay out a theory of the practical rationality of mathematics teaching—that is, a theory of the grounds upon which instructional actions specific to mathematics can be justified or rebuffed We do that from a perspective informed by what experienced practitioners consider viable but also in ways that suggest operational avenues for the study of instructional improvement, in particular for improvements that enable students to do more authentic mathematical work We show how different kinds of experiments can be used to engage in theory building and provide examples of initial work in building this theory