ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Educ.
Sec. Teacher Education
Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2025.1659982
This article is part of the Research TopicMathematics teachers' construction and enactment of disciplinary knowledgeView all 6 articles
Exploring an Instructor's Teaching in the Context of a Research-Based Curriculum and Ongoing Professional Development Program
Provisionally accepted
- 1Istanbul Aydin University, Istanbul, Türkiye
- 2Marmara Universitesi, Istanbul, Türkiye
- 3Arizona State University, Tempe, United States
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Graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) play a critical role in undergraduate mathematics education, yet their advanced mathematical knowledge does not always translate into effective, student-centered instruction. This case study, situated within the Pathways Precalculus Curriculum and Professional Development (PPCPD) project, explores shifts in a GTA’s instructional practices across two consecutive semesters of teaching with Pathways materials at a large U.S. university. The study focuses on changes in the GTA’s use of quantitative and covariational reasoning, his efforts to engage students in these reasoning skills, and his evolving approach to teaching constant rate of change (CROC). Data sources included video-recorded lessons and two semi-structured interviews. Findings show the GTA became increasingly effective, spontaneous, and fluent in supporting students in constructing meaningful function formulas and graphs. We discuss how specific features of the PPCPD intervention may have contributed to these shifts. Implications for avenues for future research are offered.
Keywords: Graduate teaching assistants, Professional Development, constant rate of change, precalculus instruction, Research-based curriculum
Received: 04 Jul 2025; Accepted: 20 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Bas-Ader, Kertil and Carlson. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Sinem Bas-Ader, sinembas@aydin.edu.tr
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