Teachers’ Views of Students’ Mathematical Capabilities: Challenges and Possibilities for Ambitious Reform
Teachers’ Views of Students’ Mathematical Capabilities: Challenges and Possibilities for Ambitious Reform
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教师对学生数学能力的看法：雄心勃勃的改革的挑战和可能性
DOI：
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发表时间：
2017
影响因子：
1
通讯作者：
Charlotte J. Sharpe
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
K. Jackson;Lynsey K. Gibbons;Charlotte J. Sharpe
背景研究表明，教师对学生能力的看法在试图完成教学改革时很重要，特别是在为历史上被边缘化的学生群体服务的环境中。然而，到目前为止，这一问题在数学教学改革的学术界和实践中却很少受到关注。研究目的本研究旨在探讨在教学改革背景下，中年级教师对学生数学能力的看法。它有助于该领域的理解，在实现高质量的数学教学的愿景固有的教师的学习需求，并建议潜在的专业学习机会的关键焦点。设置研究发生在两个大的城市地区追求雄心勃勃的改革中年级数学。参与者包括122名中年级数学教师。研究设计-本研究包括一个定性分析的半结构化访谈进行了122名教师对他们的观点，对该地区的改革的努力，包括他们的看法，他们的学生的数学能力有关的改革。从概念上讲，我们通过关注教师如何构建一个常见的实践问题--学生在数学方面面临困难--来分析教师对学生数学能力的看法（即，他们如何解释学生的困难来源）和解释学（即，他们描述了如何帮助面临困难的学生）。分析还集中在教师的诊断和预测框架之间的关系模式。结果-在整体上，大多数教师并不认为他们所有的学生能够参加严格的数学活动。大多数教师将学生的困难至少部分归因于学生的内在特质或家庭或社区的缺陷，大多数教师表示，如果他们认为学生面临困难，就会降低对活动的认知需求。此外，我们对教师的诊断和预测框架之间的关系的分析表明，即使教师解释学生的困难，在教学机会，从而承担责任，他们的学生的学习，他们不一定回应的方式，使学生能够充分参与严格的数学活动。结论研究结果表明，在完成雄心勃勃的改革的一个重大挑战需要支持转变教师如何看待他们的学生的能力沿着两个方面：教师如何解释学生的数学困难的来源，他们如何解决这些困难。讨论了设计专业学习机会以支持教师对学生能力的看法发生富有成效的转变的意义。
Background Research suggests that teachers’ views of their students’ capabilities matter when attempting to accomplish instructional reform, particularly in settings serving historically marginalized groups of students. However, to date, this issue has received minimal attention in the scholarship and practice of mathematics instructional reform. Purpose This study offers a large-scale snapshot of middle-grades teachers’ views of their students’ mathematical capabilities in the context of instructional reform. It contributes to the field's understanding of the learning demands for teachers inherent in achieving a vision of high-quality mathematics instruction and suggests potentially critical foci for professional learning opportunities. Setting The study took place in two large urban districts pursuing ambitious reform in middle-grades mathematics. Participants Participants included 122 middle-grades mathematics teachers. Research Design The study consisted of a qualitative analysis of semistructured interviews conducted with each of 122 teachers regarding their perspectives on the district's reform efforts, including their views of their students’ mathematical capabilities in relation to the reform. Conceptually, we approached our analysis of teachers’ views of their students’ mathematical capabilities by attending to how they framed a common problem of practice—students facing difficulty in mathematics—diagnostically (i.e., how they explained the source of students’ difficulty) and prognostically (i.e., what they described doing to support students facing difficulty). Analysis also focused on patterns in the relations between teachers’ diagnostic and prognostic framings. Findings On the whole, most teachers did not view all of their students as capable of participating in rigorous mathematical activity. Most teachers attributed at least some of their students’ difficulty to inherent traits of the students or deficits in their families or communities, and most described lowering the cognitive demand of an activity if they perceived that students were facing difficulty. Moreover, our analysis of the relations between teachers’ diagnostic and prognostic framing revealed that even when teachers explained students’ difficulty in terms of instructional opportunities, thereby taking responsibility for their students’ learning, they did not necessarily respond in ways that would enable students to participate substantially in rigorous mathematical activity. Conclusions Findings suggest that a significant challenge in accomplishing ambitious reform entails supporting shifts in how teachers view their students’ capabilities along two dimensions: how teachers explain the source of students’ difficulties in mathematics and how they address such difficulties. Implications for designing professional learning opportunities to support productive shifts in teachers’ views of their students’ capabilities are discussed.