Teacher Narratives about Supporting Children to Read and Write in Mathematics: The Case of Kay

Troels Lange; Tamsin Meaney

doi:10.12973/eurasia.2017.00809a

Full Text (PDF)

Troels Lange ¹, Tamsin Meaney ¹ ^*

More Detail

¹ Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Norway^* Corresponding Author

Abstract

The impact on one teacher of a short professional development project run in a school in a low socio-economic area in a small city in rural Australia is investigated in this case study. The project aimed to support teachers to improve students’ writing in mathematics. The teacher’s reflections about her work with a small group of Year 3-4-5 students are discussed in relationship to what supported or hindered her to change her practices. Over the two months of the project, the teacher supported the children to comprehend and produce their own word problems. However, the process of deciding how to change what she did to meet the needs of the students was messy because different combinations of factors affected her willingness to try alternative practices. Her narratives, from watching the videos on her lessons and in joint meetings with the other teachers and researchers, indicated that reflecting on what she was doing contributed to her taking more risks in her teaching. This resulted in the students having more opportunities to use their mathematical literacy skills to comprehend and respond to word problems.

Keywords

professional development
students’ language
mathematics word problems
low socio-economic area
teacher reflection

License

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Research Article

EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed, Volume 13, Issue 7b, July 2017, 4115-4141

https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2017.00809a

Publication date: 21 Jun 2017

Article Views: 2588

Article Downloads: 1357

Open Access References How to cite this article

References

Carpenter, T. P., Blanton, M. L., Cobb, P., Franke, M. L., Kaput, J., & McClain, K. (2004). Scaling up innovative practices in mathematics and science. Madison, WI: National Center for Improving Student Learning and Achievement in Mathematics and Science.
Clandinin, D. J., Pushor, D., & Orr, A. M. (2007). Navigating sites for narrative inquiry. Journal of Teacher Education, 58(1), 21–35. doi: 10.1177/0022487106296218.
Clarke, D. J., & Hollingsworth, H. (2002). Elaboration a model of teacher professional growth. Teaching and Teacher Education, 18, 947–967.
Coburn, C. E. (2003). Rethinking scale: Moving beyond numbers to deep and lasting change. Educational Researcher, 32(6), 3–12.
Coburn, C. E., Russell, J. L., Kaufman, J. H., & Stein, M. K. (2012). Supporting sustainability: Teachers’ advice networks and ambitious instructional reform. American Journal of Education, 119(1), 137–182. doi: 10.1086/667699. Available from: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/667699.
Cohen, L., Manion, L., & Morrison, K. (2000). Research methods in education (5th ed.). London: Routledge.
Connelly, F. M., & Clandinin, D. J. (2006). Narrative inquiry. In J. L. Green, G. Camilli & P. B. Elmore (Eds.), Handbook of complementory methods in education research (pp. 477-487). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Day, C. (1993). Reflection: A necessary but not sufficient condition for professional development. British Educational Research Journal, 19(1), 83–93.
Day, C. (1999). Professional development and reflective practice: Purposes, processes and partnerships. Pedagogy, Culture & Society, 7(2), 221–233. doi: 10.1080/14681366.1999.11090864.
Flores, A. (2007). Examining disparaties in mathematics education: Achievement gap or opportunity gap? The High School Journal, 91(1), 29–42.
Guskey, T. R. (2002). Professional development and teacher change. Teachers and Teaching: theory and practice, 8(3/4), 381–391. doi: 10.1080/13540600210000051 2.
Halliday, M. A. K. (1978). Language as social semiotic. London: Edward Arnold.
Hardy, I., & Rönnermann, K. (2011). The value and valuing of continuing professional development: current dilemmas, future directions and the case for action research. Cambridge Journal of Education, 41(4), 461–472.
Higgins, J., & Bonne, L. (2011). The challenge of sustaining and scaling up teacher professional learning and development in mathematics. Mathematics Teacher Education and Development, 13(1), 1–5.
Hitchcock, G., & Hughes, D. (1995). Research and the teacher (2nd ed.). London: Routledge.
Horn, I. S., & Little, J. W. (2009). Attending to problems of practice: Routines and Resources for professional learning in teachers' workplace interactions. American Educational Research Journal, 47(1), 181–217. doi: 10.3102/0002831209345158.
Jackson, K., & Gibbons, L. (2014). Accounting for how practitioners frame a common problem of practice - students' struggle in mathematics. Paper presented at National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Research Conference, New Orleans, LA, 2014.
Jorgensen, R. (2015). Language, culture and access to mathematics: a case of one remote Aboriginal community. Intercultural Education, 26(4), 313–325. doi: 10.1080/14675986.2015.1072302.
Joubert, M., Back, J., De Geest, E., Hirst, C., & Sutherland, R. (2010). Professional development for teachers of mathematics: opportunities and change. In V. Durand-Guerrier, S. Soury-Lavergne & F. Arzarello (Eds). Proceedings of the Sixth Congress of the European Society for Research in Mathematics Education. January 28th-February 1st 2009, Lyon (France) (pp. 1761–1770). Lyon: Institut National de Recherche Pédagogique. Available from: http://www.mathematik.uni-dortmund.de/~erme/index.php?slab=proceedings.
Joubert, M., & Sutherland, R. (2009). A perspective on the literature: CPD for teachers of mathematics. National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics. Available from: https://www.ncetm.org.uk/files/387553/RECME_Literature_Review.pdf.
Lange, T., & Meaney, T. (2012). Digital technologies and developing mathematical understanding. In G. H. Gunnardottír, F. Hreinsdóttir, G. Pálsdóttir, M. S. Hannula, M. Hannula-Sormunen, E. Jablonka, U. T. Jankvist, A. Ryve, P. Valero & K. Wæge (Eds.), Proceedings of Norma 11 The Sixth Nordic Conference on Mathematics Education in Reykjavik, May 11.-14.2011 (pp. 413–423). Reykjavik: University of Iceland Press.
Lange, T., & Meaney, T. (2013). Professional development facilitators: Reflecting on our practice. Professional development in education, 39(4), 531–549. doi: 10.1080/19415257.2013.796292.
Meaney, T. (2004). What's power got to do with it? In M. A. Walshaw (Ed.), Mathematics education within the postmodern (pp. 181–200). Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishers.
Meaney, T. (2005). Mathematics as text. In A. Cronaki & I. M. Christiansen (Eds.), Challenging perspectives in mathematics classroom communication (pp. 109–141). Westport, CT: Information Age.
Meaney, T. (2006). Mathematics register acquisition. set, (3), 39-43.
Meaney, T., Trinick, T., & Fairhall, U. (2012). Collaborating to meet language challenges in Indigenous mathematics classroosm. New York: Springer.
Mushin, I., Gardner, R., & Munro, J. M. (2013). Language matters in demonstrations of understanding in early years mathematics assessment. Mathematics Education Research Journal, 25(3), 415–433. doi: 10.1007/s13394-013-0077-4.
Pitsoe, V., & Maila, M. (2013). Re-thinking teacher professional development through Schön's reflective practice and situated learning lenses. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 4(3), 211–218. doi: 10.5901/mjss.2013.v4n3p211.
Prediger, S., & Krägeloh, N. (2016). "x-arbitrary means any number, but you do not know which one": The epistemic role of languages while constructing meaning for the variable as generalizers. In A. Halai & P. Clarkson (Eds.), Teaching and learning mathematics in multicultural classrooms: Issues for policy, practice and teacher education (pp. 89–108). Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.
Putnam, R. T., & Borko, H. (2000). What do new views of knowledge and thinking have to say about research on teacher learning? Educational Researcher, 29(1), 4–15. Available from: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1176586.
Silver, E. A., & Cai, J. (1996). An analysis of arithmetic problem posing by middle school students. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 27(5), 521-539. doi: 10.2307/749846.
Svensson, P., Meaney, T., & Norén, E. (2014). Immigrant students' perceptions of their possibilities to learn mathematics: The case of homework. For the Learning of Mathematics, 34(3), 32–37.
Timperley, H., Wilson, A., Barrar, H., & Fung, I. (2007). Best evidence synthesis: Teacher professional development. Wellington: New Zealand Ministry of Education.
van Es, E. A., Tunney, J., Goldsmith, L. T., & Seago, N. (2014). A framework for the facilitation of teachers' analysis of video. Journal of Teacher Education, 65(4), 340–356. doi: 10.1177/0022487114534266.

How to cite this article

APA

Lange, T., & Meaney, T. (2017). Teacher Narratives about Supporting Children to Read and Write in Mathematics: The Case of Kay. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 13(7b), 4115-4141. https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2017.00809a

Vancouver

Lange T, Meaney T. Teacher Narratives about Supporting Children to Read and Write in Mathematics: The Case of Kay. EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed. 2017;13(7b):4115-41. https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2017.00809a

AMA

Lange T, Meaney T. Teacher Narratives about Supporting Children to Read and Write in Mathematics: The Case of Kay. EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed. 2017;13(7b), 4115-4141. https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2017.00809a

Chicago

Lange, Troels, and Tamsin Meaney. "Teacher Narratives about Supporting Children to Read and Write in Mathematics: The Case of Kay". Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education 2017 13 no. 7b (2017): 4115-4141. https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2017.00809a

Harvard

Lange, T., and Meaney, T. (2017). Teacher Narratives about Supporting Children to Read and Write in Mathematics: The Case of Kay. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 13(7b), pp. 4115-4141. https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2017.00809a

MLA

Lange, Troels et al. "Teacher Narratives about Supporting Children to Read and Write in Mathematics: The Case of Kay". Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, vol. 13, no. 7b, 2017, pp. 4115-4141. https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2017.00809a