Affective Aspects of Teachers: Transforming Their Mathematics Practice

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9353820 Goldsmith In the proposed 12 month project, Education Development Center, Inc.(EDC) will undertake a research project designed to investigate the role of affect in the process of teacher development in mathematics instruction. The research will use a case study methodology to investigate how it feels for teachers to undertake to change their mathematics practice, and how teachers' affective states influence the process itself. Five or six teachers participating in a newly beginning teacher intervention project at EDC will serve as the subjects for the investigation. The study will use both interview protocols and observations of teachers in their classrooms and in teacher inquiry groups to gather data. Analysis will focus on articulating the kinds of feelings teachers experience as they work to transform their practice; the kinds of conditions that stimulate strong emotional responses in teachers; articulating the ways in which emotions can energize or interfere with the process; teachers' awareness of their own affect and its influence on their practice; and whether there are "signature" emotional mixes that characterize certain phases of the process of teacher change. Outcomes of the study will be written up for publication and presentation at relevant professional meetings. The results of this preliminary investigation will also be used to develop future plans for more comprehensive investigations of this issue. ***