Exploring early childhood preservice teachers’ mathematics anxiety and mathematics efficacy beliefs

Early childhood preservice teachers participated in a qualitative multiple case study to explore and examine the effectiveness of reform-based constructivist methods used in a mathematics methods course to change their mathematics anxiety, mathematics self-efficacy, and mathematics teachers’ efficacy beliefs. Findings indicated that instructor’s use of a variety of reform-based strategies to teach and model concepts were effective in reducing their mathematics anxiety and improving their mathematics self-efficacy and mathematics teaching efficacy beliefs. Based on these findings, it is recommended that mathematics methods course instructors use reform-based constructivist methods in their courses as outlined by the NCTM’s (2014) principles. Teacher educators must also consider carefully their attitudes and disposition toward mathematics along with the type of classroom and learning environment they establish in mathematics methods courses. They must emphasize conceptual understanding during mathematics methods courses, understand the connection between preservice teachers’ mathematics anxiety and mathematics efficacy beliefs, and integrate field experiences as well as peer teaching opportunities into mathematics methods courses.     

The effect of video-based approach on prospective teachers’ ability to analyze mathematics teaching

This is an intervention study that explored the effect of using video lesson analysis methodology (VLAM) on the ability of prospective middle/high school mathematics teachers to analyze mathematics teaching. The sample of the study consisted of 26 female prospective mathematics teachers enrolled in a methods course at the United Arab Emirates University. The participants were divided equally into two groups, experimental and control. The experimental group was involved in video lesson analysis where they analyzed ten video lessons throughout the semester. The group members interacted via discussion forums through Blackboard technology. Both groups wrote analyses of two video lessons, one before the intervention program and another at the end of it. It was found that the intervention remarkably improved the ability to analyze mathematics teaching of the experimental group while little improvement occurred to the control group. Implications for teacher education programs are discussed.     

Enhancing preservice teachers’ motivation to teach diverse learners

This two-year mixed-method case study examined if and how a teacher preparation program can change preservice teachers' motivation to teach culturally and linguistically diverse learners. Survey data from Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) candidates demonstrated statistically significant changes in MATs' self-confidence for teaching diverse learners, their self-efficacy for culturally responsive pedagogy (CRP), their perception of the value of multicultural teaching, and in their interest in teaching diverse learners. Interview and focus group data identified explicit instruction on CRP, diverse practicum opportunities, and an emphasis on culturally-oriented self-inquiry as factors that enhanced teachers’ desire to teach diverse students.     

Examining elementary preservice teachers’ perspectives concerning curriculum themes for video case integration

Video cases are becoming more and more prevalent throughout the United States to assist in the development and growth of preservice teachers’ instruction. This research investigates the perspectives of preservice teachers and their naïve understandings of the kinds of learning and assistance video cases can provide in their methodology courses. Personal Construct Theory was used to uncover participants’ perceptions of their needs in terms of curriculum content of video cases. Hierarchical cluster analysis revealed six distinct clusters which serve as themes for discussing the early needs of preservice teachers and how video cases might be configured to address these perceived needs. Results reveal that preservice teachers’ beliefs, though naïve, do reflect the research on the actual needs of teachers in their first years of induction and support. Perhaps if preservice teachers’ predilections are examined, this data can help guide the future implementation of video cases in their university courses.     

Segmentation’s failure to improve software video tutorials

Segmentation reduces learners’ cognitive load by inserting system-controlled pauses into instructional animations and video. However, many previous studies focus on conceptual knowledge, and do not allow users control over the pacing of instruction. This two-part experiment attempted to validate segmentation in the context of procedural software instruction by applying it to an Excel conditional formatting tutorial. Learners assigned to segmented video failed to show either improved knowledge transfer or decreased cognitive load. Instead, learners using the videos were able to successfully use the pause and rewind features to manage their own cognitive load. This study shows the importance of providing users with control over the pacing of instruction, and with testing educational theories when applying them in a new context.     

Changing preservice teachers’ epistemological beliefs about teaching and learning in mathematics: An intervention study

We investigated a theoretical model including an instructional intervention and systematic processing to account for change in preservice teachers’ epistemological beliefs about teaching and learning in mathematics. General and subject-specific epistemological beliefs and systematic processing were assessed in 161 preservice teachers, randomly assigned to an experimental group whose epistemological beliefs about mathematics were activated and challenged through augmented activation and refutational text or to a control group who read a traditional expository text. The model was partially supported. The treatment group receiving the instructional intervention demonstrated greater change in implicit epistemological beliefs than the control group, and partial support for systematic processing as a mediator of the relationship between general epistemological beliefs and change in specific epistemological beliefs was obtained.     

Tracing the development of preservice teachers’ efficacy beliefs in teaching mathematics during fieldwork

This paper focuses on efficacy beliefs with respect to teaching mathematics; it aims at testing and validating an existing scale for measuring efficacy beliefs in the domain of mathematics, examining the development of preservice teachers’ efficacy beliefs in mathematics during fieldwork, and identifying factors that contribute to the development of these beliefs. Exploratory factor analysis applied to longitudinal data collected through a questionnaire administered to almost 90 preservice teachers elicited a two-factor model, reflecting efficacy beliefs in mathematics instruction and classroom management. Using cluster analysis, we found four patterns in the development of preservice teachers’ efficacy beliefs regarding these two factors. Our analysis of semi-structured interviews with eight participants representing these four patterns suggested that preservice teachers’ efficacy beliefs were mainly informed by experimentation with teaching and interaction with mentors, tutors, peers, and pupils. Based on our findings, we draw implications for mathematics preservice teacher education and provide suggestions for future research.

Prospective elementary teachers’ aesthetic experience and relationships to mathematics

Previous research has adopted various approaches to examining teachers’ and students’ relationships to mathematics. The current study extended this line of research and investigated six prospective elementary school teachers’ experiences in mathematics and how they saw themselves as learners of mathematics. One-on-one interviews with the participants were conducted, and their written reflections were collected. A grounded-theory approach and a framework for analyzing mathematics identities were adopted in data analysis. The findings showed that the participants’ development of obligations-to-oneself was associated with not only their opportunity to exercise conceptual agency but also their aesthetic experience with mathematics. Their views on themselves as learners of mathematics had cognitive, affective, and aesthetic dimensions. The findings suggest that teachers and students can engage in a reflection on their aesthetic involvement in doing mathematics. There is a need for a local theory of aesthetics in K-12 mathematics.     

Investigating teachers’ images of mathematics

Research suggests that understanding new images of mathematics is very challenging and can contribute to teacher resistance. An explicit exploration of personal views of mathematics may be necessary for pedagogical change. One possible way for exploring these images is through mathematical metaphors. As metaphors focus on similarities, they can be used to express already-held perceptions about the nature of mathematics. In addition to providing a way of talking about current views of mathematics, the analogous dimensions of metaphors can prompt new ways of thinking about these images. In this article, I consider the use of metaphors as a strategy for explicating elementary teachers’ views of mathematics. I claim that the investigation of metaphors of mathematics helped create a shared communicative space and enhanced the quality of the discussion with the teachers. In particular, our exploration of the metaphor mathematics is a language encouraged a consideration of the humanistic dimensions of mathematics and contributed to a varied re-imaging of mathematics.     

Using the history of mathematics to induce changes in preservice teachers’ beliefs and attitudes: insights from evaluating a teacher education program

Scholars and teacher educators alike agree that teachers’ beliefs and attitudes toward mathematics are key informants of teachers’ instructional approaches. Therefore, it has become clear that, in addition to enriching preservice teachers’ (PSTs) knowledge, teacher education programs should also create opportunities for prospective teachers to develop productive beliefs and attitudes toward teaching and learning mathematics. This study explored the effectiveness of a mathematics preparatory program based on the history of mathematics that aimed at enhancing PSTs’ epistemological and efficacy beliefs and their attitudes toward mathematics. Using data from a questionnaire administered four times, the study traced the development of 94 PSTs’ beliefs and attitudes over a period of 2 years. The analysis of these data showed changes in certain dimensions of the PSTs’ beliefs and attitudes; however, other dimensions were found to change in the opposite direction to that expected. Differences were also found in the development of the PSTs’ beliefs and attitudes according to their mathematical background. The data yielded from semi-structured follow-up interviews conducted with a convenience sample of PSTs largely corroborated the quantitative data and helped explain some of these changes. We discuss the effectiveness of the program considered herein and draw implications for the design of teacher education programs grounded in the history of mathematics.

Supporting primary-level mathematics teachers’ collaboration in designing and using technology-based scenarios

In this article, we address how the design of educational scenarios can support teachers’ adoption of both technology and open-ended projects indorsing creativity and innovation. We do that by describing how groups of teachers develop digital learning environments supporting using a combination of GeoGebra and Google sites. Both teachers and pupils work with the concept of “game” as something they design, and furthermore, the pupils immerse themselves into the scenarios that the teachers create in a way similar to “playing a game.” We investigate teachers participation in collaborative development and testing through qualitative means, aiming to describe the teachers’ appropriation of (1) GeoGebra as a tool for doing and teaching mathematics, and (2) game as a metaphor supporting open-ended projects addressing creativity and innovation in the classroom. The data from the project suggest that the notion of “game” can support collaborative scenario design is a viable way of introducing technology and open-ended projects to primary school teachers.     

Learning disciplinary literacy teaching: An examination of preservice teachers’ literacy teaching in secondary subject area classrooms

In this study, we sought to articulate observable features of literacy teaching in subject area classrooms and to explore possibilities for teacher education design focused on disciplinary literacy teaching. We analyzed video records of practice of two cohorts of secondary undergraduate teaching interns (N = 60) who were enrolled in their first semester of a three-semester university-based program. To conduct our analysis, we developed a coding scheme that reflected sociocultural theories framing inquiry and literacy as social practice. We found that interns, with support, attempted important moves related to disciplinary literacy teaching.     

Investigating the effects of peer instruction on preservice mathematics teachers’ achievements in statistics and probability

This study investigated the effects of two different accountability scoring mechanisms (ASMs), which were used during the peer instruction (PI) process, on preservice middle school mathematics teachers’ (PSTs) achievements in statistics and probability. In the spring semester of 2016–2017 academic year, 46 third-year PSTs, who had been attending a statistics and probability course, participated in the study. Based on their pre-test scores, the PSTs were randomly divided into two equally achieving groups (Group 1 and Group 2). The data of this study were collected using an academic achievement test and PI and course evaluation forms. A learning management system (LMS), which was a web-based application designed by the first author, was used in collecting the PSTs’ responses to the given conceptual questions. Two different ASMs were used in calculating the PSTs’ PI scores. The findings showed that the PSTs in Group 1 obtained significantly higher overall academic, PI, and post-test scores than the PSTs in Group 2. Therefore, the PSTs’ PI and overall academic achievement scores differed based on the ASM used. Thus, using an ASM during a PI process found to be effective in increasing the PSTs’ engagement in the peer discussion. Finally, the analysis of the PSTs’ opinions regarding to the PI, learning process, and learning environment indicated their overall satisfaction.     

Early childhood and elementary preservice teachers’ beliefs

Abstract

In this study we examined 382 preservice teachers’ perceived efficacy, their beliefs regarding teaching and learning, and the relationship between these two variables by analyzing quantitative and qualitative data using a modified version of the Gibson and Dembo Teacher Efficacy Scale and six open‐ended questions. A general linear model analysis revealed that several factors differ across certain preparation programs. Preservice teachers’ efficacy beliefs increased at the end of these two different teacher education programs. Qualitative analyzes revealed variance in preservice teachers’ beliefs about teaching and learning between the two majors and in the two locations which they were studying. Most ending‐level preservice teachers had adopted the views of the way teachers are supposed to teach promoted by the particular teacher education program. The internal program coherence, program structural contexts, program's goals, and learning experiences in the program may act as important factors on preservice teachers’ beliefs. © 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.     

The building of pre-service primary teachers’ knowledge of mathematics teaching: interaction and online video case studies

This study explores how preservice primary teachers became engaged in meaning-making mathematics teaching when participating in online discussions within learning environments integrating video-clips of mathematics teaching. We identified different modes of participation in the online discussions and different levels of knowledge-building. The data can be explained by the type of task set in the learning environments and by a gradually improved shared understanding of the teaching. The structure of the learning environments supported inquiry into meaningful topics and knowledge-building through activities like identifying, interpreting and designing. These findings suggest that the different types of task and conditions of online discussion in the learning environments influence the nature of the interaction showing the correspondence between synergistic interaction and higher-order thinking.     

Perspectives on preservice teachers’ attitudes toward technology

Abstract

Technology, specifically the use of computers, is becoming more prevalent in K—12 classrooms. Constructivist and social learning theory were used to understand the way preservice teachers view technology and the extent of its influence on their current and future lives. This study employed both quantitative and qualitative data analysis techniques to investigate the attitudes of a group of undergraduate education majors toward their use of technology. Survey and follow‐up interview data were used to explore changes in attitudes of competence, comfort, and knowledge regarding the instructional use of technology. Data revealed that preservice teachers’ comfort with the technology and attitude of competence did improve over time but that perceptions of knowledge about computers remained the same. Suggestions for further study are provided.     

Mathematics teachers’ values about teaching mathematics

Not much is known about mathematics teachers’ values, and no assessment tool is available for measuring these to get more insight into their perspectives. The goals of this study are to construct the Mathematics Teachers’ Values Questionnaire (MTVQ) and to determine mathematics teachers’ values about teaching mathematics using the MTVQ. In order to do this, data have been gathered for exploratory factor analysis (n = 637) and confirmatory factor analysis (n = 573) while developing the instrument, and a proportional stratified random sample has been formed consisting of 2226 Turkish middle and high school mathematics teachers working at schools that provide more religious education than other middle and high schools. Five components have been extracted: relevance (C1), practice (C2), information and communications technology (ICT; C3), teaching approach (C4), and consolidating (C5). One result of the study reveals the mathematics teachers emphasize the least ICT value and the most consolidating value.