Mathematics Teacher Education – serie

Tasks in Primary Mathematics Teacher Education is intended to advance relevant research and innovative international practices in the preparation and professional development of mathematics teachers.

Teacher education seeks to transform prospective and/or practicing teachers from neophyte possibly uncritical perspectives on teaching and learning to more knowledgeable, adaptable, analytic, insightful, observant, resourceful, reflective and confident professionals ready to address whatever challenges teaching secondary mathematics presents.This transformation occurs optimally through constructive engagement in tasks that foster knowledge for teaching secondary mathematics. Ideally such tasks provide a bridge between theory and practice, and challenge, surprise, disturb, confront, extend, or provoke examination of alternatives, drawn from the context of teaching. We define tasks as the problems or activities that, having been developed, evaluated and refined over time, are posed to teacher education participants. Such participants are expected to engage in these tasks collaboratively, energetically, and intellectually with an open mind and an orientation to future practice. The tasks might be similar to those used by classroom teachers (e.g., the analysis of a graphing problem) or idiosyncratic to teacher education (e.g., critique of videotaped practice).This edited volume includes chapters based around unifying themes of tasks used in secondary mathematics teacher education. These themes reflect goals for mathematics teacher education, and are closely related to various aspects of knowledge required for teaching secondary mathematics. They are not based on the conventional content topics of teacher education (e.g., decimals, grouping practices), but on broad goals such as adaptability, identifying similarities, productive disposition, overcoming barriers, micro simulations, choosing tools, and study of practice. This approach is innovative and appeals both to prominent authors and to our target audiences.

But rather than starting out with a conception of mathematics derived from the many histories mathematics might claim as its own we centre the analysis instead within the social practices that surround the teaching of the subject to children aged four to eleven in English primary schools today.

Offers a perspective on the ways in which mathematicians perceive their students' learning, teach and reflect on their teaching practice; and on how they perceive the often fragile relationship between the communities of mathematics and mathematics education.

This book systematically explores and reflects on a variety of issues related to collaborative mathematics teacher education practice and research -- such as classroom coaching, mentoring or co-learning agreements - highlighting the evolution and implications of collaborative enterprises in different cultural settings. It is relevant to educational researchers, research students and practitioners.

Tasks in Primary Mathematics Teacher Education is intended to advance relevant research and innovative international practices in the preparation and professional development of mathematics teachers.

This book addresses the question of how we might better understand the task of teaching mathematics to young children. But rather than starting out with a conception of mathematics derived from mathematics' own evolution, we center ourselves instead within the social practices that surround the teaching of the subject in British primary schools today. That is, we do not commence with an a priori conception of mathematics and see what people are saying about it. Rather, we start from what people are saying and see what this points to. We probe how the desires of society have manifested themselves in a societal decision to teach mathematics and how this decision now shapes what we call "mathematics". This extends and develops a conception of how language intervenes in the task of mathematics education presented elsewhere (Brown, 2001). In this present book however, we have a particular focus on trainee and new teachers, with a view to pinpointing how this conception of mathematics manifests itself in their evolving practices. We question how such teachers with many years of experience as a pupil in school might now re-orient themselves towards the demands of teaching mathematics.We also consider how for those charged with providing training for such individuals might better understand the process and impact of this training. The book further questions the way in which we might conceptualize the balance between nurturing teachers to become autonomous professionals responsible for developing and delivering the mathematics curriculum in schools and, alternatively, setting policies that prescribe practices to be followed. We consider whether we should focus our attention principally on the teachers themselves or on the professional space in which they operate. The book is primarily concerned with examining how trainee teachers conceptualize their own professional development, from the time they enter university on a four-year course as prospective initial teacher training students through to their first year of teaching in primary school. It has a particular focus on how they understand mathematics and how they understand their own teaching of the subject in schools. It offers both empirical and theoretical perspectives.Empirically, the book draws in particular on two studies conducted by the authors, funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council and spanning a four-year period. Both of these studies were concerned with the professional development of trainee teachers with a particular focus on their phenomenological experience of the training process. Theoretically, the book draws on recent work in the field of psychoanalysis, and in particular the work of Slavoj Zizek, as an approach to examining how individual trainee teachers encounter the social framework in which they operate. In tackling this we consider the "technologies of self" that produce teachers in schools. We also look at how we might theorize our empirical findings that locate the discursive formation of school mathematics. To summarize the key strands: Firstly, we are keen to present an account of how trainee teachers understand their own journey into teaching mathematics in the primary school. Secondly, we wish to understand better the conception of mathematics in the primary school and how it might develop.Thirdly, we are keen to offer some discussion of how official policy as presented in government initiatives impacts on such teachers. Fourthly, we are concerned with better understanding the role that research in mathematics education might have in accounting for the process of trainees becoming teachers in the primary school and in stimulating development in this area. Finally, we try to offer a theoretical frame that accommodates evolving and alternative conceptions of mathematics, how it is taught and the social parameters that guide these conceptions.

Amongst Mathematicians offers a unique perspective on the ways in which mathematicians perceive their students' learning, teach and reflect on their teaching practice; also on how they perceive the often fragile relationship between the communities of mathematics and mathematics education.Elena Nardi employs two fictional, yet entirely data-grounded, characters to create a conversation on these important issues. While personas are created, the facts incorporated into their stories are based on large bodies of data including intense focused group interviews with mathematicians and extensive analyses of students' written work. This book demonstrates the pedagogical potential that lies in collaborative undergraduate mathematics education research that engages mathematicians, researchers and students. Nardi also addresses the need for action in undergraduate mathematics education and offers a discourse for reform through demonstrating the feasibility and potential of collaboration between mathematicians and mathematics education researchers.Amongst Mathematicians is of interest to both the mathematics and mathematics education communities including university teachers, teacher educators, undergraduate and graduate students, and researchers.

Teacher education seeks to transform prospective and/or practicing teachers from neophyte possibly uncritical perspectives on teaching and learning to more knowledgeable, adaptable, analytic, insightful, observant, resourceful, reflective and confident professionals ready to address whatever challenges teaching secondary mathematics presents.This transformation occurs optimally through constructive engagement in tasks that foster knowledge for teaching secondary mathematics. Ideally such tasks provide a bridge between theory and practice, and challenge, surprise, disturb, confront, extend, or provoke examination of alternatives, drawn from the context of teaching. We define tasks as the problems or activities that, having been developed, evaluated and refined over time, are posed to teacher education participants. Such participants are expected to engage in these tasks collaboratively, energetically, and intellectually with an open mind and an orientation to future practice. The tasks might be similar to those used by classroom teachers (e.g., the analysis of a graphing problem) or idiosyncratic to teacher education (e.g., critique of videotaped practice).This edited volume includes chapters based around unifying themes of tasks used in secondary mathematics teacher education. These themes reflect goals for mathematics teacher education, and are closely related to various aspects of knowledge required for teaching secondary mathematics. They are not based on the conventional content topics of teacher education (e.g., decimals, grouping practices), but on broad goals such as adaptability, identifying similarities, productive disposition, overcoming barriers, micro simulations, choosing tools, and study of practice. This approach is innovative and appeals both to prominent authors and to our target audiences.

​This book is about how teachers can use classroom mathematics tasks to support student learning, and presents data on the ways in which teachers used those tasks in a particular research project. It is the product of research findings focusing on teacher practice, teacher learning and knowledge, and student learning. It demonstrates how teachers can use mathematics tasks to promote effective student learning.​

This work reports the findings of the Professional Competence of Teachers, Cognitively Activating Instruction, and Development of Students´ Mathematical Literacy project (COACTIV). COACTIV applies a broad, innovative conceptualization of teacher competence to examine how mathematics teachers’ knowledge, beliefs, motivational orientations, and self-regulation skills influence their instructional practice and teaching outcomes In this project data was collected on various aspects of teacher competence and classroom instruction from the perspective of both the teachers themselves and their students. Moreover, it gauges the effects of these teacher characteristics on student learning, as indexed by the progress students in each class. Questions addressed in the study which are reported in this volume include: What are the characteristics of successful teaching? What distinguishes teachers who succeed in their profession? How can the quality of instruction be improved?

?This book is about how teachers can use classroom mathematics tasks to support student learning, and presents data on the ways in which teachers used those tasks in a particular research project. It is the product of research findings focusing on teacher practice, teacher learning and knowledge, and student learning.

This work reports the findings of the Professional Competence of Teachers, Cognitively Activating Instruction, and Development of Students´ Mathematical Literacy project (COACTIV). COACTIV applies a broad, innovative conceptualization of teacher competence to examine how mathematics teachers’ knowledge, beliefs, motivational orientations, and self-regulation skills influence their instructional practice and teaching outcomes In this project data was collected on various aspects of teacher competence and classroom instruction from the perspective of both the teachers themselves and their students. Moreover, it gauges the effects of these teacher characteristics on student learning, as indexed by the progress students in each class. Questions addressed in the study which are reported in this volume include: What are the characteristics of successful teaching? What distinguishes teachers who succeed in their profession? How can the quality of instruction be improved?

This book examines the various areas of mathematics education and neighboring disciplines that have recently contributed to a better understanding of the still vague construct of diagnostic competence. The work addresses the nature, development and effect of diagnostic competence in mathematics instruction, with a focus on the professional development of teachers.

This book examines the various areas of mathematics education and neighboring disciplines that have recently contributed to a better understanding of the still vague construct of diagnostic competence.

The idea of teachers Learning through Teaching (LTT) – when presented to a naïve bystander – appears as an oxymoron. Are we not supposed to learn before we teach? After all, under the usual circumstances, learning is the task for those who are being taught, not of those who teach. However, this book is about the learning of teachers, not the learning of students. It is an ancient wisdom that the best way to “truly learn” something is to teach it to others. Nevertheless, once a teacher has taught a particular topic or concept and, consequently, “truly learned” it, what is left for this teacher to learn? As evident in this book, the experience of teaching presents teachers with an exciting opp- tunity for learning throughout their entire career. This means acquiring a “better” understanding of what is being taught, and, moreover, learning a variety of new things. What these new things may be and how they are learned is addressed in the collection of chapters in this volume. LTT is acknowledged by multiple researchers and mathematics educators. In the rst chapter, Leikin and Zazkis review literature that recognizes this phenomenon and stress that only a small number of studies attend systematically to LTT p- cesses. The authors in this volume purposefully analyze the teaching of mathematics as a source for teachers’ own learning.

This book systematically explores and reflects on a variety of issues related to collaborative mathematics teacher education practice and research -- such as classroom coaching, mentoring or co-learning agreements - highlighting the evolution and implications of collaborative enterprises in different cultural settings. It is relevant to educational researchers, research students and practitioners.

What kinds of curriculum materials do mathematics teachers select and use, and how? This question is complex, in a period of deep evolutions of teaching resources, with the proficiency of online resources in particular. How do teachers learn from these materials, and in which ways do they ‘tailor’ them for their use and pupil learning? Teachers collect resources, select, transform, share, implement, and revise them. Drawing from the French term « ingénierie documentaire »,we call these processes « documentation ». The literal English translation is « to work with documents », but the meaning it carries is richer. Documentation refers to the complex and interactive ways that teachers work with resources; in-class and out-of-class, individually, but also collectively.

The idea of teachers Learning through Teaching (LTT) – when presented to a naïve bystander – appears as an oxymoron. However, this book is about the learning of teachers, not the learning of students. As evident in this book, the experience of teaching presents teachers with an exciting opp- tunity for learning throughout their entire career.

What kinds of curriculum materials do mathematics teachers select and use, and how? This question is complex, in a period of deep evolutions of teaching resources, with the proficiency of online resources in particular. Documentation refers to the complex and interactive ways that teachers work with resources;

This book shows how video technology can be used to inform teachers’ personal practice, and provides new data and real-world case studies not covered by any previous book on the subject.Initial chapters explore how practicing teachers can view their own recorded lessons and take steps to improve their methods, while subsequent chapters examine how pre-service and in-service teachers can use recorded lessons to improve how they teach selected concepts, or to better convey specific learning processes such as mathematical modeling and problem solving.