Article: Identity as a Mathematical Thinker

Reviewed by:

Kenny Ann Grace C. Batiancila

From the constructivist point of view education plays a fundamental role in development of the individual

– provides his survival, adaptation. It is cultural process, instead of biological. There is a transformation

“the person natural” into “the person cultural”(Borisov, 2014). Education purpose: is expansion from

the sphere of consciousness to level of “Absolute thought”. This thought exists irrespective of

environment, but environment stimulates its activity.

This article “Identity as a Mathematical Thinker” was written by a famous researcher Kay Owens.

Throughout my reading of this article, the author pointed out that pre-service teachers developed their

identity as self-regulating learners through setting goals, planning, organizing, recording, self-evaluating,

and structuring their learning environment. In addition, the mathematical social context provided by the

tutorial group and use of technology impacted on self-regulation and social identity and hence on pre-

service teachers’ identity as mathematical thinkers (Owens, 2007).

The basis of her argument is that teacher education students need to become self-regulated,

confident learners with a sense of ownership of their mathematical problem solving in order to identify as

mathematical thinkers (Owens, 2007). According to Stacey (2006), mathematical thinking is not only

important for solving mathematical problems and for learning mathematics as well as providing

opportunities for students to learn about mathematical thinking requires considerable mathematical

thinking on the part of teachers.

In the case of teaching mathematics, the solver has to bring together expertise in both mathematics

and in general pedagogy, and combine these two domains of knowledge together to solve the problem,

whether it be to analyze subject matter, to create a plan for a good lesson, or on a minute-by-minute basis

to respond to students in a mathematically productive way. If teachers are to encourage mathematical

thinking in students, then they need to engage in mathematical thinking throughout the lesson themselves

(Stacey, 2006).

The philosophy behind her article was to engage primary school teachers on experiencing first

hand on how to solve mathematical problems and construct mathematical knowledge through problem
solving if they are to be effective teachers. The challenge was to ensure pre-service teachers have these

experiences and hence develop an identity as a mathematical thinker to take into their own primary

classrooms (Owens, 2007).

Grabinger, Dunlap, and Heath (1993, cited in Skaalid, nd), in line with Jonassen et al. (1999),

suggested that realistic environments for active learning reflect the constructivist orientation by allowing

students to determine what they need to learn, enabling them to manage their own learning activities and

to contribute to each other learning, helping them develop metacognitive awareness and creating a non-

threatening setting for learning (Skaalid, nd).

There is one particular part of this article caught my attention. On one occasion, there were some

pre-service teachers who were absent from a tutorial class. When these students were away, the class did

not easily generate initial approaches to the problems and struggled to enjoy the lesson and succeed.

Apparently, the development of identity as a mathematical thinker was embedded in a social identity (Lee

& Robbins, 1998); that is identity formation is a social process as well as a cognitive and affective

process.

Social theories of learning (e.g., Wenger, 1998) and constructivist theories of learning focusing on

the self-regulating learner (Jonasson, Peck, and Wilson, 1999; Zimmerman, 1990) and on representation

in problem solving (Goldin, 1992) was developed in the article into a coherent theory of identity as a

mathematical thinker. The responsiveness (Macmillan, 1998; Owens, 1993) predicate how social and

psychological learning are drawn together when discussing the theory of identity as a mathematical

thinker.

The discussion shows that the identity as a mathematical thinker arose from a combination of

learning, experiences, social interactions and technological supports. The real-life problems placed the

pre-service teachers into a challenging but supported ways. Hence, the pre-service teachers established an

identity as self-regulating learners, setting their own goals, organizing and controlling their learning

environment, using a toolbox of strategies for problem solving and self-evaluating (Owens, 2007).

With the discussions and conclusions from this article, the writer recommend that additional

studies and articles should be conducted to support the theories in developing identity as a mathematical

thinker. Thus, she recommended that a study of “Effective Strategies on Developing Identity as a
Mathematical Thinker for Teacher Education Students” should be conducted. As future educators, teacher

education students should be well-equipped with knowledge and identity as a mathematical thinker.

References

Borisov, S. V. (2014). Ideas of constructivism in philosophy of education: From ontology to

phenomenology. Life Science Journal, 11(11), 399–402.

Owens, K. (2007). Identity as a Mathematical Thinker. Mathematics Teacher Education and

Development (MTED), 9, 36–50. http://www.merga.net.au/ojs/index.php/mted/article/view/81

Stacey, K. (2006). What Is Mathematical Thinking and Why Is It Important? Review of Educational

Research, 82(3), 330–348. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654312457429