Teachers and Teaching: Why the Distinction Is Important and What It Might Mean for Mathematics Education Research

• In Event: Roundtable Session 10

Session Type: Roundtable Session

Abstract

Policy efforts and public perception often assumes that the best way to improve mathematics achievement in U.S. schools is by raising the rigor of teacher qualifications. But in fact, the research connecting personal teacher characteristics to student achievement is mixed. An alternative approach to studying and improving mathematics instruction is to shift the object of study from teachers to teaching. The three papers presented here describe studies in which mathematics teaching was foregrounded as distinct from individual teachers’ personal characteristics, such as their knowledge or beliefs. Participants will share their varying perspectives and then invite attendees to join in discussing the motivations for, challenges of, and drawbacks with methodological and theoretical perspectives in which teaching is considered distinct from teachers.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Research in Mathematics Education

Chair

• Andrea McCloskey, The Pennsylvania State University

Papers

• Ritual as Lens: The Cultural Nature of Teaching Fraction Operations in a Fifth-Grade Classroom - Andrea McCloskey, The Pennsylvania State University; Gwendolyn Lloyd, The Pennsylvania State University; Courtney Lynch, The Pennsylvania State University

• Exploring the Relationship Between Professional Obligations and Personal Goals: A Case Study - Corey M. Webel, University of Missouri - Columbia

• Creating Preservice Knowledge by Collaborating to Improve Teaching - Robert Morgan Wieman, Rowan University