Geometric transformations and Talavera tiles: a culturally responsive approach to teacher professional development and mathematics teaching

Abstract

Research in mathematics education show that students learn more mathematics when it is connected to what they hear, see, and do outside of school; students’ cultural knowledge and experiences can serve as familiar, relatable contexts for learning mathematics. When teachers adopt a culturally responsive stance to teaching mathematics, they integrate the knowledge and experiences of students as situated in their cultures, homes, and communities. The following paper presents Talavera tiles as one example of a culturally responsive context for teaching geometry. The authors first briefly present the experiences of seven elementary teachers who participated in a professional development workshop, Te’ALaMo (Teachers, Art from Latin@ cultures, and Mathematical modelling) where they used Talavera tiles to explore aspects of symmetry. In the second half of the paper, the authors extend and unpack the mathematics of Talavera tiles in the context of teaching geometry for children and adolescents.