Amelia Rosenhamer

Mathematical style is defined as the way an individual approaches, understands, formulates, communicates, and expresses a solution to a problem. Mathematical proficiency consists of five components, the strands of proficiency, which weave together to indicate complete mathematical understanding. My research focuses on people talking about mathematical style instead of how they practice it. By using mathematical style and the strands of proficiency to analyze interviews with teacher candidates about their solutions to tasks posed in a methods course, I am studying how descriptions of mathematical style indicate a productive learning environment. The data collection process consisted of video and audio recordings of classwork and interviews about the classwork. My research focused on coding and analyzing the interview data and exploring connections between different mathematical styles and strands of proficiency. I focused on how these descriptions of style could indicate a productive learning environment. My research will help educators understand how the strands of proficiency can be used to create this learning environment and how mathematical style can indicate it. Next steps to this project will consist of another round of data collection and continued analysis on key features and impacts of productive learning environments.