Education paper by Kiss, Anna and Szász, Réka
Guided Discovery for Preservice Teachers (Accepted)
Type of Abstract (select):Abstract (max. 250 words):
In this talk we present teacher education methods used at Budapest Semesters in Mathematics Education (BSME), a study abroad program in Hungary for American preservice teachers. The aim of the program is for these preservice teachers to learn about the guided discovery pedagogy used in Hungarian middle and secondary school mathematics classrooms, stemming from the work of Tamás Varga, an internationally recognized Hungarian genius in mathematics education. At BSME, we challenge preservice teachers’ view of mathematics by discovery of problems drawn from various fields including art, music and language and provide them the pedagogical and methodological tools to likewise challenge their future students. To this end, BSME participants play the dual role of a student and a teacher. As students, they are exposed to tasks of guided discovery; as teachers, they reflect on this experience, and based on their experience and self-reflection, they create and teach their own tasks. In the talk, we illustrate this method of teacher training by presenting some simple selected examples of guided discovery tasks that are used in BSME classes and by illuminating how interesting questions and ideas from multifarious fields may transform into substance of mathematical discovery. We also discuss how BSME participants engage in task design and reflection.
Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Anna Kiss teaches Concept Building through Games and Manipulatives at Budapest Semesters in Mathematics Education. She is also a PhD student at the Mathematics Didactics Programme of Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, where she conducts research on Tamás Varga’s guided discovery approach in mathematics education. She has taught mathematics at various levels from elementary school to college, most recently for 5-6th grade students at Kincskereső School, an alternative school which integrates children with learning difficulties, as well as those with emotional and/or behavioural difficulties, into the school community.
Réka Szász is the Hungarian Director of Budapest Semesters in Mathematics Education, and she teaches English and Mathematics at the Lauder Javne School in Budapest. In her PhD she studied differentiated instruction in the Hungarian Mathematics Classroom, then she conducted research on developing the mathematical knowledge of teachers at the University of Toronto. For most of her career she taught on the secondary level and in teacher education simultaneously. Recently she also started teaching yoga, which informs her work in the above fields, as well.