Preservice Elementary School Teachers' Perceptions of Reading and Writing in Mathematics Classes

Gwen Fisher, California Polytechnic State University

For at least the past decade, researchers have been exploring the role of language in mathematics classes. Included in the domain of language is both reading and writing about mathematics. I designed a study with university students to assess these students’ perceptions of reading and writing assignments in mathematics classes. The participants of this study were taken from two classes of a final quarter of Mathematics for Elementary School Teachers.

In addition to assigning typical mathematics content problems, I required the students to read their textbook for homework and to respond to daily Questions from the Reading assignments. Additionally, I designed and assigned a Connections Paper. I required the students to submit their Connections Paper for three different due dates. For the first two submissions, the students reviewed each others¹ papers using a rubric that I designed. I scored only the final version of the paper.

I administered a questionnaire to the students at the end of the quarter to determine students’ perceptions of the two types of assignments. Analyses of the data focus on the relationship between students perceptions of the reading and writing assignments and their various earned scores in the class. I will report on both quantitative and qualitative data.