RR 92-1 Influencing beginning teachers' practice in mathematics education: Confronting constraints of knowledge, beliefs, and context.
Abstract
This paper contrasts cases of three beginning teachers. The teachers are graduates of a teacher education program that included an intervention component designed to change prospective elementary teachers' knowledge and beliefs about mathematics education. The interventionşa sequence of three mathematics courses, a methods course, and a curriculum seminarşaimed to develop a more conceptual level of knowledge about mathematics and the teaching and learning of mathematics.
The paper begins with a series of vignettes to sketch a portrait of each of the subjects as student and teacher of mathematics. In the discussion that follows, analysis focuses on the ways in which knowledge and context influenced the choices made by these novice teachers. An examination of the cases reveals considerable similarities as well as striking differences. The commonalities inhere in a set of issues that each new teacher faced: (a) being responsible for teaching multiple subject matters, (b) deciding on the mathematical content children should have an opportunity to learn, (c) creating worthwhile mathematical tasks, and (d) using instructional time given multiple and competing goals. The differences appear in the choices they make in response to these issues. The analysis suggests that the choices the teachers made were influenced by the interaction of their views about knowledge and pedagogy and the degree to which they perceived context to be a constraint.
The paper concludes with questions about the nature of the support that would be required in the induction years if new teachers are expected to institute practices that are innovative and difficult to implement, questioned in traditional school settings, and unfamiliar to faculty, administrators, parents, and students alike.