Initial Preceptor Survey

 

Dear Project RENEW Preceptor,

My name is Sarah Hough and I am a member of the Documentation and Research Team for project RENEW. I would greatly appreciate your answering the following few questions regarding your background and ideas about mathematics education. A paragraph response to each question would be very helpful as your responses are meant to provide one-time baseline data for our Evaluation for NSF. Thanks for your time!

Background Information

Code: Telephone:
Name: Email:

Current grade taught
Lowest math grade level taught
Highest math grade level taught

How many years have you been teaching?

How many years with your current district?

Please select all of the formal mathematics courses you have taken:

  High School College
Pre-algebra
Algebra
Geometry
Pre-Calculus
Calculus
Math Analysis
Math for Elementary School Teachers
Other

A. Please list all of the Mathematics professional development/enhancement you have participated in

B. Please describe any other experiences that you feel have contributed to your mathematical growth.

C. How do you see your [future] role in supporting beginning teachers to become more successful in teaching mathematics?

D. What is your concept of the ideal mathematics classroom at your grade level? (Please give as much detail as possible)

E. How was your mathematics classroom last year similar/different from your ideal and why?

 

F. What do you think are some of the issues relating to equity and mathematics in your educational setting? (Please give specific examples if appropriate)


Doing Mathematics. Each of the statements below refers to "doing mathematics." For each item select from the menu the extent to which you agree with the statement.

asdf Strongly Agree Agree Not Sure Disagree Strongly Disagree
1. When you do mathematics there is always a right way to go about doing things and answers are not open to interpretation.
2. Investigating new situations and relationships among concepts are important parts of doing mathematics.
3. Some people are better at doing mathematics than others because they have a certain kind of mathematical mind.
4. Collaborating with other people to share ideas and verify conjectures is an important part of doing mathematics.
5. Doing mathematics mostly involves memorizing facts and procedures.
6. Doing mathematics is a step-by-step mechanical process.
7. When doing mathematics it is not important to understand why a procedure works only that it will give you the right answer.
8. When doing mathematics, if you don't understand something you need to get help from a text book or the instructor.
9. Doing mathematics is thought-provoking.
10. When doing mathematics you are discovering patterns and making generalizations.
11. Mathematics is most often a solitary activity.
12. Unlike most other subjects, when you are doing mathematics you are always dealing with known quantities.
13. Doing mathematics is a creative process.
14. There are many ways to go about solving most problems in mathematics.

Teaching Mathematics. Each of the statements below refers to "teaching mathematics." For each item select from the menu the extent to which you agree with the statement.

asdf Strongly Agree Agree Not Sure Disagree Strongly Disagree
1. Using cooperative learning techniques in mathematics instruction is not appropriate for high achieving students.
2. In mathematics students cannot understand high level concepts until they have mastered the "basic" steps of a given procedure or algorithm.
3. When teaching mathematics teachers should assume that all students have the capacity to understand high level concepts.
4. When teaching mathematics the teacher should demonstrate the mathematics steps clearly and slowly and then give students time to learn the steps by repetition.
5. Students generally learn mathematics best in classes/groups with students of similar abilities.
6. When students do not understand something in mathematics it is because they have not had enough practice.
7. The best way for students to learn mathematics is to do many similar types of problems until they get the procedure down.
8. It is better to teach mathematical ideas directly to students than to let then figure out relationships for themselves.
9. When working with slow learners in mathematics teachers should focus a lot of instruction on "basic skills."
10. To learn math students should be given plenty of opportunities to engage in inquiry oriented activities.
11. Encouraging students to make conjectures in mathematics is not necessary because the purpose of instruction is to get them to remember and apply math facts.
12. Encouraging students to explore their own methods of solving a problem is as important as teaching mathematical formulas and procedures.