Over the past decade in the U.S., there have been increased efforts to improve undergraduate mathematics instruction and shift toward active learning practices. However, these efforts face many obstacles, including the wide range of backgrounds, teaching approaches, and goals that instructors bring to their courses. This talk will present a study of three instructors of introductory-level courses and describe their classroom norms and justifications via professional obligations. In addition to personal factors, external factors of teaching, such as the physical learning spaces, also influenced their instruction and created tensions between obligations. This study emphasizes the support systems required within mathematics departments to sustain instruction improvement efforts among all faculty.

Meeting ID: 953 4937 9380