Article,
Investigating Teachers' Experiences with the History of Logarithms: A Collection of Five Case Studies
(2006)
Abstract
This study investigated five secondary mathematics teachers' efforts to study and use the history of a specific topic. A professional development experience, constructed to reflect the features of effective professional development identified by Garet, Porter, Desimone, Birman, and Yoon (2001) and Smith (2001), was designed to engage teachers in the study of the historical development of logarithms. Modifications of activities found in the Exponentials and Logarithms module (Anderson, Berg, Sebrell, & Smith, 2004), as well as various print and electronic resources, were used during the professional development. Two primary research questions guided the study. First, the study addressed how teachers with different background knowledge and experiences responded to the professional development. Second, the study investigated how teachers' background variables and experience with the professional development influenced the teachers' personal mathematical knowledge and instructional pra...
