Mathematical preparation of elementary teachers in China: changes and issues

It is generally perceived that Chinese elementary teachers have a profound understanding of the school mathematics they teach. This perception has led to further interest in understanding teacher education practices in China. As some dramatic changes in elementary teacher preparation have taken place in China over the past decade, this article aims to outline these changes with a focus on curriculum provided in the new 4-year bachelor preparation programs. Sample mathematics teacher educators in China were also surveyed to gather insiders’ views about teacher preparation practices and to identify relevant issues. We believe that elementary teacher preparation and its changes in China can provide an important case for mathematics teacher educators around the world to reflect on teacher education practices in their own systems.

More than a conversation: using cogenerative dialogues in the professional development of high school chemistry teachers

This paper focuses on content-based and pedagogical instructors’ use of cogenerative dialogues to improve instructional practice and to evaluate program effectiveness in a professional development program for high school chemistry teachers. We share our research findings from using cogenerative dialogues as an evaluative tool for general assessment of various program-related issues. We discuss how engaging students in cogenerative dialogues improved teaching and learning in chemistry and chemistry education courses. This research provides insights and direction for improving content-based professional development programs for science teachers and the learning experiences of high school science students. Cogenerative dialogue has the potential to expand evaluation methodologies that will position participants more centrally in not only the collection of data, but also the analysis of these data to catalyze transformative practices in educational programs.

Learning to observe: using video to improve preservice mathematics teachers’ ability to notice

Video has assumed an increasingly prominent role in teacher education, particularly in the form of the viewing of videotaped class lessons by preservice teachers. Yet there is little research that confirms whether preservice teachers attend to the aspects of the video(s) that teacher educators anticipate or desire. This article explores this issue and reports on the impact of video viewing as a means to improve teachers’ ability to be observers of classroom practice. We utilized a pre- and post-test design to measure the quantity and type of classroom events that preservice mathematics teachers noticed before and after a teaching methods course where improving observation skills was an explicit goal. The results of the pre-assessment suggest that preservice teachers generally do not enter teaching methods courses with well-developed observation skills. The post-assessment indicates that the course led to significant increases in preservice teachers’ observation skills, particularly in teachers’ ability to notice features of the classroom environment, mathematical content of a lesson, and teacher and student communication during a lesson.

Challenges in deepening prospective teachers’ understanding of multiplication through justification

This article reports challenges faced by prospective elementary teachers as they revisited whole number multiplication through a sequence of tasks that required them to develop and justify reasoning strategies for multiplication. Classroom episodes and student work are used both to illustrate these challenges, as well as to demonstrate growth over time. Implications for the design of mathematics courses for prospective teachers’ are discussed. Although the study is situated in the context of multiplication, it has implications for teachers reasoning and justification in other areas of mathematics.

Measuring the impact of a university first-year experience program on student GPA and retention

In 1997 a medium-size Midwestern public university in the U.S. initiated a first year experience program. The program is designed to infuse added curricular and extracurricular components into core courses in an effort to integrate students into the university community. This article examined the FYE impact on grade point average (GPA) and retention after 1 year for the fall 2006 cohort of entering students. The findings suggest no positive FYE effect on retention, but on average FYE students earned higher GPAs than non-FYE students. Reducing the sample to include only courses identified as goal compatible FYE courses yielded a positive effect on retention and also accentuated the GPA differential. The estimated positive FYE impact on retention was larger for below average students (especially females) and smaller for above average students.

Border Crossings: Engaging Students in Diversity Work and Intergroup Relations

As an innovative model for diversity education, Dickinson College designed the Crossing Borders program to encourage culturally diverse students to live, work, and study together in multiple contexts both within the United States and abroad. Envisioning a series of crossings, the program brings together up to 20 students from Dickinson College, a predominantly White Institution, and Xavier University, Dillard College, and Spelman College, three Historically Black Colleges/Universities, to spend 4 weeks studying together in Cameroon. West Africa. Students then study at Dickinson for one semester and at one of the Historically Black Colleges/Universities for one semester.

Making the Hidden Explicit: Learning About Equity in K-8 Preservice Science Education

Preservice teachers in a K–8 science methods course used guided video reflection to examine their interactions with children during science teaching. This inquiry approach helped preservice teachers identify and respond to gaps between their beliefs and intentions about teaching all children and their enactment of those beliefs. The experience of teaching a science lesson and then viewing it multiple times through a critical framework provided an opportunity for preservice teachers to recognize hidden assumptions, unexamined behaviors, and the unintentional meanings they may have conveyed to children. This encouraged them to think more critically about their roles as teachers in creating spaces where all children have access to quality science learning experiences.

Mary Budd Rowe: a storyteller of science

This article examines Mary Budd Rowe’s groundbreaking and far-reaching contributions to science education. Rowe is best known for her research on wait-time: the idea that teachers can improve the quality and length of classroom discussions by waiting at least 3 s before and after student responses. Her wait-time research grew from and helped inform her staunch advocacy of science education as inquiry; Rowe saw wonder and excitement as central to the teaching and learning of science. She spent much of her professional life designing professional development experiences and innovative curriculum materials to help teachers, particularly elementary school teachers, enact inquiry in their classrooms.

The Rise and Fall of Innovative Education: An Australian University Case Study

From 1980 to 1995, the University of Western Sydney at Hawkesbury (formerly Hawkesbury Agricultural College) in Richmond, New South Wales, Australia, pioneered an innovative undergraduate degree in Systems Agriculture based on experiential education, systems thinking, and adult learning theory. Today this program is in trouble and has reverted back to a more traditional teacher-directed approach. This article discusses the rise of the innovative education paradigm at Hawkesbury, the unique Systems Agriculture program itself, and its eventual decline. Reasons for both the shift to innovative education and its eventual downfall are explored. Implications for institutions of higher education contemplating innovative educational approaches are suggested.

Teachers’ Coping Strategies for Teaching Science in a “Low-Performing” School District

This study describes how teachers use their personal knowledge of a school district and their students to cope with teaching under stressful situations associated with economic, social, and institutional factors. The 3 teachers dealt with these issues in unique ways, focusing on helping students to overcome negative perceptions, value the importance of an education, and build strong relationships. A model of multicultural science professional development is proposed that complements the strengths that these teachers have. A task for science educators working with teachers and administration in schools and districts that are “critically low performing” is to support everyone in implementing pedagogical methods aimed at empowerment, social justice, and high achievement for all students.

Routines and collective orientations in mathematics teachers’ professional development

There is an increasing awareness of the social dimension in mathematics teacher education. Collaboration and co-operation are regarded as key factors in professional development. In this paper I will analyse some tensions that might arise when the professional development of mathematics teachers is considered a collective enterprise. I will present phenomenological group interview as a method that is designed to reveal the collective character of teacher development. Some primary teachers’ collective reflections on an ongoing professional development process will be interpreted by focusing on the concepts of routine and collective orientation. The discussion is centred on the ambivalence of routines, as facilitators of practice, and collective orientations, as socially-agreed-upon knowledge base, for mathematics teachers’ professional development.

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.

Views about Physics held by Physics Teachers with Differing Approaches to Teaching Physics

Physics teachers’ approaches to teaching physics are generally considered to be linked to their views about physics. In this qualitative study, the views about physics held by a group of physics teachers whose teaching practice was traditional were explored and compared with the views held by physics teachers who used conceptual change approaches. A particular focus of the study was teachers’ views about the role of mathematics in physics. The findings suggest the traditional teachers saw physics as discovered, close approximations of reality while the conceptual change teachers’ views about physics ranged from a social constructivist perspective to more realist views. However, most teachers did not appear to have given much thought to the nature of physics or physics knowledge, nor to the role of mathematics in physics.

Priority Education Zones in Mauritius

This article discusses the Priority Education Zones project (ZEP) in Mauritius. The original and innovative dimensions of the project are described, together with the difficulties encountered during the setting-up of the ZEP schools. The article covers five main issues: the status of the ZEP project; the minimal conditions for success; the implications concerning the teachers; the obstacles faced; and the strategy devised to implement the ZEP project, while overcoming the obstacles.

Implementing a Physical Activity Curriculum into the School Day: Helping Early Childhood Teachers Meet the Challenge

In Fall 2006, North Carolina kindergarten teachers were charged with the task of meeting the NASPE guidelines for providing daily physical activity to their kindergarten students. In turn, the teachers researched resources and consulted experts to design and develop a developmentally appropriate physical activity and physical play environment for their students. The purpose of this article is to disseminate useful information one group of kindergarten teachers believed would help other teachers in similar situations. The article discusses the planning process, suggestions for activities and necessary equipment for program implementation, and vignettes regarding the experiences the teachers and students have had during the physical activity and physical play program’s inaugural year.

Mathematical belief change in prospective primary teachers

The development and influence of beliefs in teacher education has been a topic of increasing interest for researchers in recent years. This study explores the responses of a group of prospective primary teachers to attempts to facilitate belief change as part of their initial teacher education programme in mathematics. The students’ responses seemed to fall into three categories: non-engagement; building a new set of beliefs and; reforming existing beliefs. In this article the participants’ responses are outlined and illustrated with stories from three individuals. This study suggests that belief reform is complex and fraught with ethical dilemmas. Certainly there is a need for further research in this area, particularly given the pervasive influence of beliefs on teaching practice.

Documentation: A Hard to Reach Place

Some educators experience difficulty documenting young children’s work in early childhood settings because of a limited understanding of the importance of documentation, what or how to document, and the effective use of documentation; limited resources (time, tools, and assistance); or predetermined curricular guidelines. Some teachers, especially inexperienced early years teachers, have trouble engaging with children and documenting simultaneously, revealing a crucial misunderstanding about the purpose of documenting. Teachers at Reggio Emilia-inspired schools throughout the United States use many forms of documentation to enhance the qualities of children’s experiences in preschool classrooms. This article addresses the dilemmas teachers face in implementing documentation in order to assist them as they move from standards-based teaching and teacher-determined content to a more constructivist approach to teaching. Ideas for using documentation shared by the authors will allow young children to construct their own knowledge and curiosity, making learning more meaningful to them and more visible to others.