'Mirror Logic': A Preservice Mathematics Teacher's Thinking about Radian in the Context of Light Reflection

Integrated science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (iSTEM) education allow learners to utilize multiple disciplinary perspectives. However, the discipline of mathematics remains underrepresented in iSTEM curriculum. To explore the nature of mathematical thinking with an iSTEM curricular approach that emphasizes mathematics, we investigated the thinking of a preservice mathematics teacher, Alex (pseudonym), who engaged in a task-based digital activity involving radian angle measure in the context of light reflection. Findings suggest that Alex's ways of thinking comprise mathematical terminology, concepts, and processes, including mathematical ways of thinking about light reflection. The findings in this report suggest that emphasizing mathematics in this iSTEM context provided an opportunity for new ways of thinking about radian angle measure, and about how angle measure relates to light reflection. [For the complete proceedings, see ED630210.]