Troops to Teaching: lessons from English teaching assistants’ experiences of foundation degree study

This article explores the suggestion that the UK should follow the lead of the United States and establish Troops to Teaching programmes. In particular, it examines the worth of the suggestion that non-graduate qualifications similar to those that have been designed for teaching assistants might be usefully employed to achieve this. In England, foundation degree study has typically been the route followed by teaching assistants who have decided that they would like to become qualified teachers. The value of adopting such an approach, in relation to the UK coalition government’s desire to establish a viable Troops to Teaching programme, is specifically explored. Research which has investigated English school-based teaching assistants’ experiences of participating in foundation degree study is drawn upon to interrogate this theme.     

Teaching mathematics that addresses learners’ multiple intelligences

Abstract

To meet the demands of our highly technological and globally competitive society, it is becoming increasingly important for all learners in South Africa to obtain skills and knowledge in mathematics. However, South Africa performed the worst of all the countries who participated in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMMS). Education in South Africa is now confronted with the dilemma of how to improve the mathematics performance of learners. One way of dealing with this dilemma is to apply Howard Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences in the classroom. This intervention should contribute positively to the South African Government's Foundation for Learning Campaign. This article suggests specific ways in which teachers can incorporate the different intelligences in their teaching and learning activities in the mathematics classroom. Recommendations are made for the application of the Multiple Intelligences Theory in the mathematics classroom, and topics for future research are suggested.     

Teaching primary mathematics with challenging tasks: How should lessons be structured?

Engaging students in a challenging (cognitively demanding) task and launching a mathematics lesson with a task before instruction are two characteristics of a reform-oriented approach to mathematics instruction often considered together. The authors systematically contrasted teaching with challenging tasks using a task-first lesson structure with that of a discussion-first lesson structure to three composite classes of first- and second-grade students (n = 73). Subsequent assessments of mathematical performance revealed that the discussion-first lesson structure was somewhat more efficacious in improving fluency performance but both structures similarly improved problem-solving performance. The findings suggest there is more than one way of incorporating challenging tasks into mathematics lessons to produce sizeable learning gains.     

Teaching lessons in exclusion: researchers’ assumptions and the ideology of normality

Filling in a research questionnaire means coming into contact with the researchers’ assumptions. In this sense filling in a questionnaire may be described as a learning situation. In this paper I carry out discourse analysis of selected questionnaire items from a number of studies, in order to highlight underlying values and assumptions, and their ideological import. These studies all attempted to investigate attitudes that Greek pupils show towards fellow-pupils defined as ‘different’. The survey questions are organized in terms of types of diversity, and the data is interpreted through the concept of exclusion and the ideology of normality. I argue that a number of items in the questionnaires embody assumptions likely to encourage attitudes and practices potentially leading to the marginalization of children defined as ‘different’. Finally I suggest alternative approaches to researching pupils’ attitudes and point out implications for research training.     

Using valsiner’s zone theory to interpret Teaching practices in mathematics and science Classrooms

This study explores the use of Valsiners zone theory as a way to interpret the zones of proximal development of three secondary teachers in mathematics and science. Specifically, we used classroom discourse to identify what the participating teachers promoted (zone of promoted action) or allowed (zone of free movement) in the classroom as a way to understand better their potential for development. We found that teachers who promoted actions or events that they ultimately did not allow students to experience seemed to be at a point in their development analogous to Vygotskys pseudo-conceptual stage, prior to full concept formation. Moreover, we found that, at this illusionary zone, the teachers capacity to listen actively to students thinking seemed to affect the teachers transition toward more inquiry-based forms of practice. We concluded that understanding the zone of promoted action and the zone of free movement the teacher organizes in the classroom can indicate the existence or absence of an illusionary zone and thereby provide insight into a teachers potential for development.     

Kyouzaikenkyuu: an exploration of Japanese mathematics teachers’ daily planning practices

Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education - Kyouzaikenkyuu (translated as instructional materials research) is said to be a crucial part of successful Japanese lesson study. Kyouzaikenkyuu is...     

Pre-service mathematics teachers’ learning and teaching of activity-based lessons supported with spreadsheets

In this study, 12 pre-service mathematics teachers worked in teams to develop their knowledge and skills in using teacher-led spreadsheet demonstrations to help students explore mathematics concepts, stimulate discussions and perform authentic tasks through activity-based lessons. Pre-service teachers’ lesson plans, their instruction of the lessons designed, experiences and lesson enactment outcomes were examined. The pre-service teachers in the study were able to develop and demonstrate their knowledge and skill adequately in designing and enacting activity-based mathematical lessons supported with spreadsheets. The results also showed that the pre-service teachers’ use of the spreadsheet as an instructional tool promoted student in-depth mathematical concept formation and an activity-based learning approach to make lessons less teacher centred and more interactive.     

Pre-service versus in-service mathematics teachers’ opinions of mathematics reform in post-primary schools in Ireland

A new approach to the teaching and learning of mathematics has been introduced on a phased basis in post-primary education in Ireland. As part of the OECD PISA 2012, a survey was undertaken of in-service mathematics teachers in Ireland, with the aim of gathering data on the opinions of teachers about this reform. Here, a modified version of the survey was distributed to pre-service teachers immediately before and after a four-month teaching placement to ascertain if there were differences in the views expressed by pre-service and in-service teachers in relation to the teaching and learning of mathematics, and also if there were differences expressed by the pre-service teachers before and after their placement in post-primary schools. Analysis of the results showed considerable levels of agreement between all groups, with some exceptions in relation to confidence in teaching the reformed curriculum, emphasis on various teaching and learning activities, and usage of ICT in the classroom.     

Teachers’ professional beliefs about their roles and the pupils’ roles in the school

In recent decades, many educational reforms have been implemented that aim to effect a change in teachers’ and pupils’ roles by promoting meaningful learning. Yet, little is known about how teachers perceive these roles as a part of their professional belief system. In this study, 68 Finnish comprehensive school teachers were interviewed. The data were content analysed. The results showed that teachers recognised the importance of facilitating pupils’ active role in learning, but still mostly considered pupils as passive in school practices. Moreover, teachers perceived pupils as active educational participants most often outside the classroom, in informal school settings. Correspondingly, teachers described themselves primarily as knowledge transmitters in pupils’ learning. In their professional community, teachers perceived themselves mostly as reproducers of knowledge instead of facilitators of learning. There was also variation between the teachers as well as within a single teacher’s beliefs.     

What mathematics do teachers with contrasting teaching approaches address in probability lessons?

This paper (1) presents a conceptual framework for analyzing the mathematics addressed in probability lessons and (2) uses the framework to compare the mathematics that two teachers with contrasting teaching approaches addressed in class when teaching the topic of probability. One teaching approach aimed to develop understanding; the other emphasized mechanistic answer finding. Class work on 193 problems was analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively, showing some similarities and some differences in the mathematics that the two teachers offered to students. The differences found seemed to be linked to the teachers’ teaching approaches. The findings suggest that teachers who adopt different teaching approaches, to some extent, make available to learn different mathematics even when they use the same textbooks.     

Unpacking foreshadowing in mathematics teachers’ planned practices

This paper provides an empirical exploration of mathematics teachers’ planned practices. Specifically, it explores the practice of foreshadowing, which was one of Wasserman’s (2015) four mathematical teaching practices. The study analyzed n?=?16 lessons that were planned by pairs of highly qualified and experienced secondary mathematics teachers, as well as the dialogue that transpired, to identify the considerations the teachers made during this planning process. The paper provides empirical evidence that teachers engage in foreshadowing as they plan lessons, and it exemplifies four ways teachers engaged in this practice: foreshadowing concepts, foreshadowing techniques, foregrounding concepts, and foregrounding techniques. Implications for mathematics teacher education are discussed.

     

Teaching anxieties revealed: pre-service elementary teachers’ reflections on their mathematics teaching experiences

Over the last 50?years, there has been ample research dedicated to mathematics anxiety in contexts of teaching and learning. However, there has been less attention focused on pre-service teachers’ anxieties about teaching mathematics in classroom settings. This study analyzed pre-service teachers’ reflections at the conclusion of an elementary mathematics field experience in order to determine common themes surrounding anxiety-related events based on mathematics practice-teaching experiences. Through qualitative analysis of pre-service teachers’ reflections using open and axial coding, three categories and ten themes surrounding elementary pre-service teachers’ anxiety-related events based on mathematics practice-teaching experiences emerged. Some of the themes presented were ones that increased pre-service teachers’ anxieties for teaching mathematics, whereas other themes reflected aspects of the field experience that decreased anxiety for teaching mathematics. Based on the themes revealed in this study, suggestions for strategies and materials that could be developed for university mathematics methods courses are discussed. Novel perspectives for considering mathematics teaching anxiety, such as locus of control and future time perspective, are shared.     

‘I am not the teacher!’: some effects of remodelling the roles of teaching assistants in English primary schools

Remodelling the roles, responsibilities and working practices of all school staff has been central to the government's modernisation agenda for English state schools. This is typified by a determination to review and change the distribution of tasks undertaken by teachers and teaching assistants (TAs). Whilst there has been a substantial increase in the numbers of TAs employed in schools there is still a lack of clarity about their roles and about the impact of remodelling on the working lives of both teachers and assistants. Evidence from the Transforming the School Workforce: Pathfinder Project, conducted immediately prior to the launch of the National Agreement in 2003, indicates that initial concerns about the ways in which TAs were being deployed are still very apparent. Here the authors focus on management and professional development issues arising from TAs adopting more pedagogical roles in schools.     

Teachers’ conceptions of representation in middle school mathematics

Current reform efforts call for an emphasis on the use of representation in the mathematics classroom across levels and topics. The aim of the study was to examine teachers’ conceptions of representation as a process in doing mathematics, and their perspectives on the role of representations in the teaching and learning of mathematics at the middle-school level. Interviews with middle school mathematics teachers suggest that teachers use representations in varied ways in their own mathematical work and have developed working definitions of the term primarily as a product in problem solving. However, teachers’ conception of representation as a process and a mathematical practice appears to be less developed, and, as a result, representations may have a peripheral role in their instruction as well. Further, the data suggested that representation is viewed as a topic of study rather than as a general process, and as a goal for the learning of only a minority of the students—the high-performing ones. Implications for mathematics teacher education, prospective and practicing, are discussed.     

Students’ Expectations of Teaching in Undergraduate Physics

This article reports on a phenomenographic‐based study of the expectations of teaching among undergraduate physics students. Data are drawn from a range of course‐contexts at each of two quite different universities — one South African and one Swedish — and five qualitatively different expectations of physics teaching are identified and exemplified. These range from presenting knowledge to facilitating personal development and agency. Implications of possible mismatches between students’ and lecturers’ expectations of physics teaching are discussed in relation to students’ learning experiences.