Expanding Teachers' Understanding of Geometric Definition: The Case of the Trapezoid

Author(s): Randall E. Groth

Source: Teaching Children Mathematics, Vol. 12, No. 7 (MARCH 2006), pp. 376-380
Published by: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
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 Randall E. Groth

Expanding Teachers'
Understanding of
Geometric Definition:The
Case of the Trapezoid
findingsshow that teachersoften articledescribesan instructional
episodeaimedat
need considerablehelp developingconcep- helpinga groupof preserviceelementary school
Research
tual understanding of geometricdefinitions teachersovercomethelastof thesethreehurdles.
(Borasi 1996). Ball, Lubienski,and Mewborn Specifically,it details my effortsto help them
(2001) argue that conceptualunderstanding is understand twocommonly accepteddefinitions
for
essentialto thepracticeofteachingmathematics: trapezoidandtheconsequencesofeach.

Without such knowledge, teachers lack

resources necessary forsolvingcentral problems Initial Class Discussion
in theirwork - forinstance,usingcurriculum "You know,thetrapezoidis one of themostcon-
materials judiciously, choosingandusingrepre- troversial shapesin all of geometry," I announced
sentations and tools,skillfully interpreting and one day to my class of preserviceelementary
responding to theirstudents' work,and design- school teachers.The commentwas metby more
ingusefulhomework assignments (p. 433). thana few looks of disbelief.The facialexpres-
sions of some class membersseemedto convey
Theirobservation is especiallypertinent to teach- suchthoughts as "Whatcouldpossiblybe interest-
ing geometry, because textbooksand curriculum ing aboutthetrapezoid?"and "How can therebe
materialssometimes differ in theconventions they anyroomforcontroversy in mathematics?" Deter-
use fordefining geometric objects.If teachersdo minedto convincethemof myclaim,I decidedto
not understand the variousconventionsand the have the class experiencefirsthand the kind of
consequencesof each,theywillhavelimitedabil- debatesthatan "innocent"shapesuchas a trape-
ityto guidetheirstudents' learning. zoid can spark.The resulting discussionprovided
Comingto understand thenatureofmathemati- an opportunity forconsidering mathematics con-
cal definition is a complexmatter. Borasi (1992) tentissuesalongsidepedagogicalissues,anditalso
identified some cognitivehurdlesthatindividuals fosteredimportant insightsabout the preservice
mustovercomein doingso, such as recognizing teachers'thinking thatwerevaluablefordesigning
thedifference betweenlistingproperties of a con- follow-up instruction.
cept and definingit, creatingdefinitionsthat To furtherclarifymyinitialclaimaboutthecon-
excludeunwanted cases,andcomingto gripswith troversial natureof the trapezoid,I informed the
theidea thatmorethanone definition fora mathe- class thatmorethanone definition forthe term
maticalconceptcanbe considered acceptable.This trapezoid is commonly accepted.I didnottellthem,
however, whatthosetwocommonly accepteddefi-
nitionsare. I withheldtheinformation thatsome
Randall Groth,regroth@salisbury.edu, teaches mathematics education courses forpreservice
and in-serviceteachers at Salisbury Universityin Salisbury, Maryland. He is interestedin using textbooks definea trapezoidas a quadrilateralwith
students' mathematical thinkingto improve instruction. at leastone setofparallelsides,whereasothertext-
Edited by Fran Arbaugh, arbaughe@missouri.edu, and John Lannin, LanninJ@missouri.edu, booksdefineit as a quadrilateral withexactlyone
members of the mathematics education faculty at the University of Missouri- Columbia, setofparallelsides(Cathcart etal. 2003).
Columbia, MO 65203. This department serves as a forum for the exchange of ideas and a Afterlettingtheclass in on thefactthatno def-
source of activities and pedagogical strategies forteacher educators in theirday-to-day work
withprospective and practicingteachers. Readers are encouraged to send manuscripts appro- initionfortrapezoidis universally accepted,I had
priate forthis section by accessing tcm.msubmit.net. themworkin groupstoproduceas manyexamples
and nonexamplesof trapezoidsas they could.

376 TeachingChildren
Mathematics
/March 2006

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 ^^^
Sketches of trapezoids

Examples

'Z7 | U /J' n' n>

Nonexamples

Mix

" [_nJ /^ / J
P
^ [y -i ^ ^ U-i
j [

Usingexamplesandnonexamples toillustrate
geo-
metricconceptsis a usefulapproachto teaching
childrenproperties of shapes (Fuys and Liebov
1997),so I saw thisoccasionas an opportunity for
thepreservice teachers tolearna pedagogicalstrat-
egy whilerefining and extending theirown geo-
metriccontent knowledge. Each of thesix groups
of preserviceteachersin class producedseveral
examplesandnonexamples. To wrapup thesmall-
groupportion ofourdiscussion, I askedeachgroup
to send someoneto the chalkboardto drawone
. exampleof a trapezoid, one nonexample, and one
shapefortheclass to debateabout.A sketchrepre-
sentingtheshapesthatendedup on theboardis
shownin figure1.
Withtheshapespostedon theboardforevery-
one to see, myfirstquestionto theclass was "Are
thereanyshapesthatshouldbe removedfromthe
'examples'portionof theboard?"One preservice
teacherimmediately statedthatshape C, which
appearedto be a parallelogram, shouldbe moved
into the nonexamplescategory.Anotherstated
thatshape F, whichwas a pentagon,shouldbe
movedthere,as well. When I asked how many
thoughtthatshape shouldbe moved,several,
butnotall, of thepreserviceteachersraisedtheir
hands.WhenI asked how manythoughtshape F
shouldbe moved,thealmostuniversalconsensus
was thatit shouldbe considereda nonexample.
The groupthatputshapeF on theboarddefended
its decisionby sayingthattheshapehad a set of
parallelsides.Othersin class statedthatitwas not
enoughfora shapeto have a set of parallelsides
butthatitalso neededtobe a quadrilateral. By the
end of thisexchange,everyoneseemedto at least
tentativelyagreethata trapezoidis some sortof
quadrilateraland thatparallel sides play some
rolein definingit.
The nextbitof class conversation tookus back
to consideringshape I questionedwhy we
shouldremoveit fromthe "examples"category.
Afterall, it appearedto be a quadrilateral with
someparallelsides.I gotrather vagueresponsesto
thisnewlineofquestioning at first.
One preservice

TeachingChildren
Mathematics
/March 2006 377

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 teachersaid thatone of thesideshas to be "tilted
out"to makea shapea trapezoid. Another saidthat
thereshouldbe onlya certain number of parallel
sides. Althoughthese responsesindicatedsome
intuitive,informalthinkingabout the defining
characteristics of a trapezoid,some work still
remainedto be donein movingtowarda morefor-
mal,precisedefinition fortrapezoid.
To beginto movetowarda definition of trape-
zoid thatwe could agreeon as a class, I pointed
out thatwe had alreadyreachedsome consensus
about what makes a shape a trapezoid.Nearly
everyoneagreedthatit shouldbe some typeof
quadrilateral. I thensaid, "Puttingour disagree-
mentaboutshape aside forthetimebeing,sup-
pose we allowitto be calleda trapezoid.IfI write
'A trapezoidis a quadrilateralwith ,'
whatneeds to go in the blank?"This statement
promptedone preserviceteacherto replythata
trapezoidis "a quadrilateral withtwo setsof par-
allel sides." The murmurin the classroomindi-
cated thatthis definitiondid not sit well with
some of the otherpreserviceteachers.I asked
themto explainwhytheydid notlikemakingtwo
setsofparallelsidesa defining characteristic.
One
of thempointedout thatunderthatdefinition,
shapeD couldnotbe considereda trapezoid.This
commentled to a suggestionby anotherclass
memberthatone definition fortrapezoidcouldbe
"a quadrilateralwithat least one set of parallel
sides."At thispoint,we had one definition that
almosteveryoneseemedto agreeon.
To elicitthinkingaboutanother possibledefini-
tion for trapezoid,I asked how our definition
wouldchangeif we did notallow shape in the
"examples"category.This questionelicitedthe
other commonlyaccepted definitionrelatively
quickly.A preservice teacherstatedthatin sucha
situation,a trapezoidwouldhavetobe definedas a
quadrilateral withexactlyone setofparallelsides.
This seconddefinition was puton thechalkboard
alongsidethefirst. We had nowarrived, as a class,
at the two commonlyaccepted definitionsfor
trapezoid.
Some members oftheclass werenotcontent to
let theclass discussionon thissubjectend simply
withthetwostateddefinitions. Questionsimmedi-
atelyaroseabouttheteachingimplications of our
discussion.One class memberaskedwhatteachers
shoulddo if a childhas beentaughtbothconflict-
ingtrapezoiddefinitions. Thisquestionresultedin
a briefdiscussionof the importance of frequent
discussionsamongteachersat variousgradelevels
378
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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
withina school district.Anotherclass member
askedwhether one shouldteachchildrenthattwo
different trapezoiddefinitionsareaccepted.Others
in class seemedto prefer theapproachofexposing
childrento just one definition initially,
perhaps
buildingonthatdefinition lateron.Severalinclass,
however, did notexpressopinionsabouttheques-
tionsthatwereraised.Curiousabouthowothersin
theclass werethinking abouttheissues raised,I
to
decided elicitthoughts fromeveryoneby using
writing prompts.
Responses to Writing
Prompts
Abouttwo weeks afterour discussionaboutthe
trapezoidtookplace,I presented two
thefollowing
writing
prompts:
1. Supposethatthecurriculum materials yourdis-
a
tricthas adopteddefine trapezoid as "a quadri-
lateralwithexactlyone setofparallelsides."A
studenttellsyouthathe doesnotthink yourdef-
initionis right,becausetheteacherhe had last
yearsaid a rectanglecan be a trapezoid, and it
has morethanone set of parallelsides.What
wouldyoudo in thissituation?
2. Supposeyou discoverthatthetextbook used at
the high school level in your school district
definesa trapezoidas "a quadrilateralwith
exactlyone set of parallelsides,"whereasthe
curriculum materialsusedattheelementary and
middleschool levels definea trapezoidas "a
quadrilateralwithat least one set of parallel
sides."Whatwouldyoudo?
These two questionswerebased on theconcerns
raisedat theconclusionoftheclass discussionof
thetwodifferent definitionsof trapezoid.
Theirresponsesto the writingpromptsindi-
catedthatfiveof thenineteenpreserviceteachers
in class stillheld to theidea thatjust one correct
definitionfor trapezoidexists. Apparently, the
class discussionthathad occurredtwoweeksear-
lier was notenoughto dislodgethatbelief.Four
of those five preservice teachers apparently
remembered partsof theearlierclass discussion,
because they suggested using examples and
nonexamplesto teach geometricconcepts.They
said thattheywoulduse thestrategy to teachstu-
dentshow to "correctly" definea trapezoid.The
fifthpreserviceteacherwho held to the belief
thata trapezoidcan be definedin onlyone way
Mathematics
TeachingChildren /March 2006
said thatshe wouldgo to theboardof education siderotherdefinitions. A conceptimageis defined
forthe school districtto suggestthattheybuy as follows:
differentcurriculum materialsfortheelementary
school.Each of thefivepreserviceteacherssug- The totalcognitivestructure thatis associated
gestedsome sortof intervention. However,the withtheconcept,whichincludesall themental
extentto which their proposed interventions pictures and associated properties and
wouldbe effective is questionable,sincetheydid processes.It is builtup overtheyearsthrough
nothave thecontentknowledgeneededto guide experiencesof all kinds,changingas theindi-
themin a fruitful direction. vidualmeetsnewstimuliandmatures. (Tall and
Fourteenof the nineteenpreserviceteachers Vinner1981,p. 152)
acknowledged theambiguousnatureof thedefin-
itionfortrapezoidin theirwriting prompts.They An important pointto noteis thata conceptimage
tookseveraldifferent approachesto dealingwith is builtup overseveralyearsof schooling.If one
the ambiguity. Six preserviceteacherssaid that has severalyearsofexperienceencountering only
theywouldsimplytellstudents thattwodifferent one sort of trapezoid,then to build a concept
definitionsfortrapezoidare commonlyaccepted. imagethataccommodatesmorethanone typecan
Eight preserviceteacherssaid thattheywould be difficult. In addition,school experienceswith
guide studentsto discoverthe two commonly geometryoftenare not structured to allow indi-
accepted definitionson their own, either by vidualsto movepastsimplerecognition andnam-
researching textbooks andWeb sitesor by engag- ing of geometricshapesto tasksrequiringanaly-
ing in an examples-nonexamples activitysimilar sis of the relationshipsamong them (Fuys,
totheonetheyhadexperienced twoweeksearlier. Geddes, and Tischler 1988). The resultis that
Amongthefourteen whoacknowledged theambi- some studentsleave theirstudyof geometryin
guityinherentin definingtrapezoid,two men- gradesK-12 withimpoverished conceptimages
tioneddiscussingthediscrepancy betweendefini- forgeometricideas.
tionswithteachersat othergradelevels. Anotherexplanationfor the limitedcontent
knowledgedisplayedin some writingpromptsis
thatsome of the preserviceteachersmay have
Interpretingthe Responses held Platonistbeliefsaboutthesubjectof mathe-
Perhapsthemostsurprising aspectoftheresponses matics.Platonistsgenerallyhold thatmathemat-
tothewriting prompts was thatsomeofthosewho ics is nota productof humaninvention, butthat
hadparticipated in theclass sessiondescribedpre- objectsin mathematics have an existenceof their
viouslystillheldto theidea thatjustone "correct" own(Dossey 1992). Such beliefsaboutthenature
definitionfortrapezoidexists.Thisfactraisestwo of mathematics could interferewithone's accep-
important questionsforconsideration: (1) Whydid tanceof theidea thatmathematical objects,such
theyhold to theidea of theexistenceofjust one as trapezoids, can be redefinedbymathematicians
definitionfortrapezoid?and(2) Whatcan be done forthesake of convenience.In practice,teachers'
tohelpthemmovebeyondthisidea? beliefs often do contain Platonist elements
(Thompson1992). Hence, by the time students
Possible reasons reachpreservice teacher-preparationcourses,they
for the responses are likelyto havehad a greatdeal of exposureto
At firstglance,thepreservice teacherswho stated Platonistconceptionsof mathematics.
thatjust one correctdefinitionfortrapezoidexists
appearto have simplyforgotten an essentialpoint Strategies to enhance
fromthe class activitydone two weeks earlier. content knowledge
However,the questionof why many of them Fromtheprecedingdiscussion,it can be inferred
remembered the strategy of usingexamplesand thatbuildingpreserviceteachers'geometriccon-
counterexamples butnotthemathematical content tentknowledgeinvolveshelpingthem develop
thathadbeendiscussedstillremains. richerconceptimagesand guidingthemto ques-
One explanation fortheapparent lack of reten- tion Platonisticassumptionsabout mathematics.
tion of contentis thatsome preserviceteachers Sinceconceptimagesandbeliefsaboutmathemat-
mayhavehad a resilientconceptimageof trape- ics aredevelopedlongbeforeteachersreacha uni-
zoid thatinterfered withtheirwillingnessto con- versity-level course,a necessarypartofpreservice

TeachingChildren /March 2006

Mathematics 379

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 teachereducationis "incitingdoubtand making Concluding Thoughts
the previously unproblematic problematic" The trapezoid lessondescribed inthisarticlecanbe
(Cooney,Shealy,and Arvold1998, p. 330). The viewedas an important step,although notnecessar-
challengeis to incitedoubtand simultaneously ilythefinalone,towardthedevelopment ofcontent
providean appropriate levelof support. knowledge neededforteaching geometry. Conduct-
One strategyfor helpingpreserviceteachers ingthetrapezoiddiscussionandposingthewriting
developknowledgeaboutthenatureof definitions prompts can generate important insightsaboutpre-
is to havethemexaminetextbooks. In theexample serviceand in-serviceteachers'thinking. Those
of thetrapezoid,a helpfulapproachcan be to ask insights, in turn,can helpteacher educators design
themto look at one textbookthatdefinesa trape- instruction thatis responsivetoteachers'needs.The
zoid as a quadrilateralwithexactlyone setof par- trapezoidproblem,and otherquestionsthatelicit
allel sides and anotherthatdefinesit as a quadri- andbuildon teachers'thinking, canbe instrumental
lateralwithat least one set of parallelsides. A in developingtherichknowledgeof mathematics
textbookusingthe formerdefinition would con- content neededforteaching.
sidera reference to a squareas a trapezoidto be
incorrect, whereasone usingthe latterdefinition
wouldconsiderit correct.By lookingat theentire References
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