Elementary Teachers’ Visions for Student Learning in Mathematics and ELA

• In Event: Insights from Examining and Comparing Elementary Teachers’ Visions Across Content Areas

Abstract

Objectives
Teacher's views of students and perspectives on disciplinary learning determine their goals in the classroom and how they measure success (Hammerness, 2006). Yet, we know little about how these ideals vary by content area for elementary teachers who teach multiple subjects and balance varying disciplinary goals (Rainey & Moje, 2012). This analysis compared the content of elementary teachers' visions for student learning—what they want students to accomplish—in mathematics and ELA. We explored, what are the features of elementary teachers' visions for student learning in mathematics and ELA? How do they compare?

Perspectives
This study aligns with literature that conceptualizes teachers’ visions as what they wish to accomplish in their teaching, particularly their goals for students (Duffy, 2002; Vaughn et al., 2021). From a theory of practice, we considered a teacher’s vision of successful student learning to shape their pedagogical decisions (Bourdieu, 1990).

Data and Methods
We examined the visions of teachers at Rivers and Parks Elementary Schools in their first year of the professional learning program (N=20). In semi-structured interviews, to elicit teachers’ visions for student learning in ELA and mathematics respectively, we asked the following questions:
Most teachers say they want their students to be a reader. What does being a reader mean to you?
Most teachers say they want their students to know math. What does knowing math mean to you?
To understand the features of teachers' responses, we analyzed relevant excerpts from interview transcripts by content area, used open coding and discussion among coders to identify patterns, and wrote analytic memos to generate themes (Corbin & Strauss, 2015).

Findings
Our analysis revealed multiple themes within teachers' visions for student learning across mathematics and ELA, including: disciplinary dispositions, applications beyond the classroom, and academic skills (see Table 1). We found one theme unique to visions for mathematics student learning: wanting to combat common negative discourses. Below, we illustrate our findings for two identified themes.
First, teachers mentioned wanting students to develop a particular disposition toward each discipline. In ELA, teachers emphasized that being a reader means wanting to read, often expressed as “having a love for books.” In mathematics, teachers described ideal student dispositions of persistence, like “how to persevere through [problems]”.
Second, exclusively in teachers’ visions of knowing mathematics, teachers described wanting to combat common negative narratives about mathematics. They wanted students to know that mathematics is not about finding one right answer, or that being good at math is not an innate quality. Some teachers expressed actively communicating these ideals to students or parents.

Significance
Teachers’ visions of student learning have implications for student learning opportunities, classroom experiences, and who gets identified as successful (Hammerness, 2006). This study contributes insight into resonance across mathematics and ELA among elementary teachers goals for students. These can be leveraged by teacher educators to help elementary teachers develop cross-content instructional visions and practices and make connections among disciplines explicit for students (Rainey & Moje, 2012).

Authors

• Rebecca Memmolo, University of Delaware

• Olga Hawranick, Washington State University

• Blake Nelson, Washington State University

• Anne Garrison Wilhelm, Southern Methodist University