Changing perspectives: Examining the potential for advanced mathematical studies to influence pre-service teachers' beliefs about mathematics

This study considers the potential for advanced mathematical studies to impact pre-service teachers' beliefs about mathematics. Results show that, after completing a degree which includes advanced mathematical studies, many prospective teachers' beliefs still reflect limited interpretations of key terminology and do not value the theoretical and conceptual network underpinning the rules and procedures of secondary mathematics. Many of their beliefs about the nature of mathematics also fail to recognise its capacity to stimulate analytical thought and creativity. In cases where pre-service teachers showed evidence of well-developed beliefs, the study explores the role of their advanced mathematical studies in this development.     

Shared beliefs, conflict, and a retreat from reform: the story of a professional community of high school mathematics teachers

This article describes the case of a professional community of high school Pre-algebra teachers who began and later abandoned a collective effort at reform. The community's retreat from reform appears to have been influenced by their beliefs about students and their closely related beliefs about appropriate content and pedagogy for those students. Both sets of beliefs were characterized by conflict and internal inconsistency. Yet, the community avoided addressing the conflicting nature of their beliefs. Both the nature of the community's beliefs and their avoidance of the inherent inconsistencies appear to have shaped the response to reform in this case.     

Developing beliefs about classroom motivation: Journeys of preservice teachers

This paper examines the developing beliefs about classroom motivation of eight preservice teachers during teacher education. The framework conceptualises the contexts in which preservice teachers participate and the filtering effect of prior beliefs. Qualitative analyses of multiple data sources reveal two distinct trajectories in the development of beliefs about classroom motivation. The findings highlight the importance of filtering prior beliefs, alignment and conflict of ideas, significance of self-motivating factors and power of emotions in developing beliefs about classroom motivation. Implications emphasize the importance of enabling preservice teachers examining existing beliefs and integrating these with learning during teacher education.     

Special education pre-service teachers' interest,subject knowledge,and teacher efficacy beliefs in mathematics

Teacher efficacy beliefs is an important characteristic to predict instructional quality and the level of cognitive activation and educational support. Since teacher efficacy beliefs are context and domain specific, this study focuses on how special education pre-service teachers' individual interest and subject knowledge in mathematics predict their efficacy beliefs in teaching mathematics. Data were collected from 57 special education pre-service teachers. The results indicated that the individual interest of pre-service teachers has a strong effect on teacher efficacy beliefs, while subject knowledge has only an indirect effect.     

Teachers' beliefs about students,and the intention of students to drop out of secondary education in Flanders

Students dropping out of education with no qualifications has been an important problem in the West for decades. Little relevant research has concentrated on school characteristics, and research into the role teachers might play in students' decision to quit school is particularly scarce. Using multilevel analyses of data for 11,844 students in 84 Flemish secondary schools, we investigate whether teachers' shared expectations of students are associated with students' intention to drop out. Particularly in vocational education, teachers' beliefs about the teachability of students influence the students' intention to quit, irrespective of perceived teacher support and students' sense of futility.     

Data-based individualization in mathematics to support middleschool teachers and their students with mathematics learning difficulty

Project STAIR (Supporting Teaching of Algebra: Individual Readiness) aims to develop and iteratively refine a framework for using data-based individualization (DBI) to support the readiness for algebra of middle-school students with mathematics learning difficulty. Project STAIR was tested in four middle schools in the United States to assess the impact of intensive professional development, ongoing coaching, and frequent student progress monitoring on teachers’ DBI practices, school-level culture and climate, and students’ algebra readiness. Findings from this exploratory research point to the promise of Project STAIR for improving teacher perceptions of school culture and climate related to support of students experiencing mathematics learning difficulty as well as increasing specific DBI practices, including teachers’ ratings of importance, understanding, and confidence with assessment practices. Students’ mathematics outcomes improved on several algebra-readiness progress monitoring measures, along with a diagnostic measure, but not on a more distal measure of mathematics performance.     

Complexity and contradiction: Disciplinary expert teachers in primary science and mathematics education

This article presents a systematic literature review about disciplinary expert teachers in primary science and mathematics education. This is a timely synthesis of the literature, as current reforms in teacher education in Australia and internationally require primary teachers to have specialised knowledge in a learning area. Systematic review protocols were used to identify and evaluate the relevance of numerous articles of which thirty-seven were included in the final analysis. Findings show insufficient evidence about whether expert teachers have a positive impact on instructional quality and student learning. Implications are discussed with reference to the current policy moment in Australia and teacher education more broadly.     

The change in epistemological beliefs and beliefs about teaching and learning: a study among pre-service teachers

This study investigated the change in Singaporean pre-service teachers' epistemological beliefs and beliefs about learning and teaching over the course of a teacher preparation program. An online survey was administered during the first week of a nine-month program and the same survey was administered after the 413 participants had completed all their course work and teaching practice. Participants exhibited significant changes in epistemological beliefs and beliefs about learning and teaching – participants indicated more relativistic epistemological outlooks and less constructivism in beliefs about teaching. At the end of the teacher preparation program, they seemed to less value effort in learning and believed more in innate ability.     

A meta-analysis of comparative studies on Chinese and US students’ mathematics performance: Implications for mathematics education reform and research

US and China are reforming mathematics teaching by shifting from students’ attainment of facts and procedures toward development of competencies in reasoning, communication, connections, and problem solving, and application of these in real life contexts. Differences in students’ overall performance, curricula, and teachers’ knowledge and instruction between US and Eastern Asian countries are often used to support US reform with two obvious limitations. First, their performance has not been delineated into specific areas which raise questions about whether overall higher Asian mathematics performance over US is also evident in the specific US reform competencies. Second, Asians are often used as an indiscriminate group with inattention to different schooling and non-schooling factors between countries that might contribute differently to performances. This meta-analysis examines US and Chinese student mathematics performance studies and identifies the strengths and weaknesses in overall and specific competencies. It raises questions about theoretical assumptions, discusses limitations of research designs, and proposes research that may lead to a critical understanding of the quality of mathematics learning.     

Discourse communities: A framework from which to consider professional development for rural teachers of science and mathematics

This paper explores aspects of professional development for teachers of science and mathematics in schools in rural Australia. The study identified a range of issues including tensions between government, school and individual professional learning priorities and their respective responsibilities; the shaping of professional development by rurality; and issues of generic versus subject-specific professional learning. The paper will focus on the needs of teachers, particularly secondary teachers, for subject-specific professional development and the capacity of different professional development approaches for satisfying these needs. The notion of discourse communities is proposed as a framework for considering this issue.     

Messy learning: Preservice teachers’ lesson-study conversations about mathematics and students

Research about lesson study and other forms of collaborative, practice-based professional development has tended to focus on identifying structures that support teacher learning. This study builds on this work by examining preservice elementary teachers’ efforts to conduct lesson studies in mathematics. Analysis showed that the structures of the lesson study project supported some groups in developing mathematical and equity lenses for looking at teaching; however, the use of these lenses simultaneously led to productive and problematic learning. This finding suggests that future research focus on challenges present in collaborative, practice-based work even when productive structures are in place.     

Classroom assessment in the eyes of Chinese primary mathematics teachers: A review of teacher-written papers

In this paper we report on a review of papers written by teachers aimed at knowing more about teachers’ perceptions of the current situation of classroom assessment in primary mathematics education in China. The review is based on 266 papers included in the China National Knowledge Infrastructure database. We found that the teacher-authors reflected various aspects of their classroom assessment practice, including the purpose of assessment, the content of it, the person who is the assessor, the assessment methods that are used, and the feedback that is provided. Most attention was paid to feedback; it seems many teacher-authors considered classroom assessment to be equivalent to feedback. In general, the conceived classroom assessment practice as described in the papers echoed well nearly all aspects that are advocated in the Chinese mathematics curriculum standards. The only aspect that was scarcely discussed in the papers was the use of assessment results to adapt and improve instruction.     

Human contact in the classroom: Exploring how teachers talk about and negotiate touching students

In a “risk society,” as defined by Beck [(1992). Risk society, towards a new modernity (M. Ritter, Trans.) Newbury Park, CA: Sage, see also Castel, R. (1991). From dangerousness to risk. In G. Burchell, C. Gordon & P. Miller (Eds.), The Foucault effect: Studies in governmentality (pp. 281–298). Chicago: The University of Chicago Press], teachers are risky individuals who, “must become permanent objects of their own suspicion” [Jones, A. (2003b). Touching children: Policy, social anxiety, and the ‘safe’ teacher. Journal of Curriculum Theorizing, 19(2), 112]. The purpose of this study was to explore how four experienced, female teachers for whom “touching” students is a natural component of their teaching, talked about how they made choices about when and how to engage in the risky behavior of touching children. Findings are organized along two axes. The first represents how participating teachers perceived contexts as facilitating or constraining human contact. The second illustrates what conversations about human contact revealed about participants’ teaching selves. This study contributes to the literature on teacher–student relationships as well as the literature on teachers’ decision-making. Implications for future research in teacher decision-making, teacher–student relationships, and teacher education are discussed.     

When teachers learn how to provide classroom structure in an autonomy-supportive way: Benefits to teachers and their students

In two experimentally-based and longitudinally-designed studies, secondary-level PE teachers were randomly assigned to participate or not in a new intervention to help them learn all of the following: support autonomy, provide structure, and provide structure in an autonomy-supportive way. In Study 1, teachers who participated in the intervention showed longitudinal gains in all five hypothesized teacher benefits (e.g., teaching efficacy, job satisfaction). In Study 2, students of teachers who participated in the intervention showed longitudinal gains in all four hypothesized student benefits (e.g., classroom engagement, skill development). Overall, teachers and students benefited after teachers provided structure in an autonomy-supportive way.     

Emotions that experienced English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers feel about their students, their colleagues and their work

This study examines what contribution emotions make to the professional lives of experienced EFL teachers. Interviews with EFL teachers working in Tokyo universities revealed that the teachers had very positive feelings of emotional warmth regarding students, which they expressed through their identity as carers and moral guides. On the other hand, the teachers expressed their relationships with colleagues and institutions in much more negative emotional terms. Two implications for teacher development are suggested: the need for teachers to talk collaboratively about the emotional impact of teaching, and the need to discuss what the moral purpose of EFL teaching is.     

Teaching efficacy: exploring relationships between mathematics and science self-efficacy beliefs,PCK and domain knowledge among preservice teachers from the United States

This mixed-methods study investigated the relationships among preservice teachers’ efficacy beliefs, pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) and their domain knowledge (DK) as related to mathematics and science teaching. Quantitative results revealed that participants’ PCK was significantly correlated with their mathematics and science efficacy beliefs. Additionally, participants’ mathematics and science DK did not predict their mathematics and science personal efficacy beliefs, however, their PCK score predicted participants’ outcome expectancies. Interview analysis revealed five inter-related key themes, labeled as: Previous academic experiences, Mathematics and science PCK beliefs, Personal efficacy, Outcome expectancies and Emotions. These common themes describe participants’ views of their quality teacher training and thinking about planned instruction. Educational implications are discussed in relationship with study findings.     

Early career mathematics teachers: Concepts,methods, and strategies for comparative international research

In this article, we report on the challenges entailed in the development of concepts, methods, and strategies for designing and implementing a cross-national research study of the first-years of school-mathematics teaching, including an exploration of how beginning mathematics teachers differ in their preparation, knowledge for teaching, teaching practice, working conditions, and pupil characteristics. The study was designed as a proof-of-concept for a study of teaching and teacher education to be implemented by educationalists, teacher educators, and early career teachers as an ongoing professional endeavor. Primary among the challenges was the development of the sampling design and the construction of measures.     

Defining content for field-based coursework: Contrasting the perspectives of secondary preservice teachers and their teacher preparation curricula

The current study examined changes and continuities in how 11 secondary teacher preparation programs and 743 preservice teachers conceptualized the content and sequence of field-based teacher preparation. Although curricula and candidates differed regarding the knowledge each deemed as most relevant for field-based preparation, they largely agreed on the types of learning activities considered as most meaningful for the acquisition of that knowledge base. Possible explanations for these discrepancies and continuities are discussed.     

The Supporting Effective Teaching (SET) project: The relationship of inclusive teaching practices to teachers' beliefs about disability and ability,and about their roles as teachers

The Supporting Effective Teaching (SET) project consists of studies that examine the relationship between elementary general education teachers' beliefs about disability and ability and their roles in inclusive classrooms, and how these are related to teaching practices. Teaching effectiveness is operationally defined as multiple dimensions of teaching practices observed in inclusive classrooms. This paper examines previously reported and newly completed studies that investigate the characteristics of teachers in inclusive classroom settings, what they believe about their roles and responsibilities and about their students' learning, and how their beliefs relate to their teaching effectiveness with students both with and without disabilities.