Mathematics teachers' reflective thinking: Level of understanding and implementation in their professional practices.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Aldahmash AH
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8496853 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:Considering how spatial thinking connects to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) outcomes, recent studies have evaluated how spatial interventions impact elementary students' math learning. While promising, these interventions tend to overlook other factors affecting math learning; perceptions of math abilities, beliefs about math, and math anxiety can also impact math performance. Additionally, perceptions of spatial skill and spatial anxiety impact spatial performance. This study investigated how elementary teachers' perceptions of spatial thinking connects with math perceptions. Specifically, we focused on teachers' attitudes and beliefs around three topics: teaching and learning math, spatial abilities, and spatial thinking in mathematics. We found that lower spatial anxiety related to lower anxiety about teaching math, greater alignment between math beliefs and math standards, and greater efficacy in teaching and learning math. Further, a factor analysis showed one factor that connected stereotypical math thinking with both math and spatial anxiety, and another that connected spatial competencies, teaching and learning math, and spatial thinking within math. To further evaluate spatial thinking in math, we introduced a math categorization and verified it using teachers' ratings of teaching difficulty, visualization helpfulness, and spatial-thinking involvement. Structural equation models revealed that the level of spatial-thinking categorization was the best model of all three of the teachers' ratings. Overall, results showed numerous connections between teachers' attitudes and beliefs about mathematics and spatial thinking. Future intervention studies should consider teachers who are spatial and/or math-anxious, and future research should investigate the role of stereotypical thinking in spatial and math anxiety.
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Project description:Background:This research highlights a school-university collaboration to pilot a professional development framework for integrating STEM in K-6 mathematics classrooms in a mid-Atlantic suburban school division. Because mathematics within STEM integration is often characterized as the calculations or the data representations in science classrooms, technology labs, or outside-of-school programs, developing a reasonable and realistic conceptualization of STEM integration for mathematics teachers and coaches may be especially challenging. Using design-based implementation research, university facilitators worked with eight mathematics teachers and coaches to construct an accessible vision of STEM integration built upon the design features of model-eliciting activities (MEAs). The research team strategized a flexible and fluid professional development that would (1) situate participants' breadth of experiences on a STEM curriculum integration continuum; (2) elicit a new vision of STEM integration through open-ended mathematics problems with client-driven, real-life contexts; and (3) focus on making mathematics content explicit. Results:Qualitative analysis of participant discussions and written reflections from a four-day summer institute indicates that the daily tailoring of the professional development design supported an evolving participant envisioning of STEM integration. Opportunities to engage with MEAs as learners, contrast MEAs with problem-based learning and draw from MEA design features to modify existing curricular tasks allowed participants to think more broadly about mathematics content within STEM integration. Participants communicated a readiness to use MEAs as a vehicle for K-6 STEM integration which maintains an important grounding in the teaching realities of grade-level standards and standardized test preparation. They also acknowledged the need for ongoing support as they considered the challenges of curricular pacing and administrative expectation. Conclusions:The researchers continued to support the school division during monthly academic-year professional development sessions as the teachers and coaches created and enacted prototype lessons. Their shared investment in building STEM integration capacity with a specific focus on mathematics content can offer a model for STEM integration using MEAs that challenges one-size-fits-all professional development, encourages STEM instructional leadership, and promotes mathematical readiness for STEM citizenship and careers.
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Project description:Teachers' sense of identity plays a central role in understanding their actions as individuals inside and outside the classroom. Therefore, it is important to determine teachers' understanding of who they are. Thus, teachers' opinions about their professional self-understanding in the study were aimed to be analysed. Although teacher training practices are gaining importance rapidly, it is seen that studies on how teachers evaluate themselves are not sufficiently included in the literature. For this purpose, the research was carried out using the qualitative research method and phenomenology pattern to consider teachers' opinions about their professional self-understanding holistically. The research study group consists of 44 teachers working in primary, secondary, and high schools in the Pendik district of Istanbul. Research data were obtained from in-depth interviews with teachers through semi-structured interview forms. The findings obtained were grouped under five themes: "Image, Respect, Job Motivation, Perception of Duty, and Future Views", considering the relevant literature. The study revealed that professional self-understanding is closely affected by emotions and teachers' social status. Considering the relationship between social status, acceptance, and individual motivation, it is thought that the negative judgments in society about the teaching profession make individuals reluctant to choose this profession. For this reason, it can be evaluated that studies should be carried out to restore the eroded reputation of the profession in society and that this profession should be provided with much more attractive opportunities economically.
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Project description:The aim of this study was to contribute to knowledge about classroom assessment by identifying profiles of teachers' assessment of their students' understanding of mathematics. For carrying out this study we used data of a nationwide teacher survey (N = 960) in the Netherlands. The data were collected by an online questionnaire. Through exploratory factor analyses the underlying structure of what is measured by this questionnaire was uncovered as consisting of five factors: Goal centeredness of assessment, Authentic nature of assessment, Perceived usefulness of assessment, Diversity of assessment problem format, and Allocated importance of assessing skills and knowledge. By using a latent class analysis four different assessment profiles of teachers were identified: Enthusiastic assessors, Mainstream assessors, Non-enthusiastic assessors, and Alternative assessors. The findings suggest that teachers with particular assessment profiles have qualitatively different assessment practices. The paper concludes with discussing theoretical implications of these assessment profiles and indications these profiles can offer both for designing material for professional development in classroom assessment and for evaluating changes in teachers' classroom assessment practice.
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Project description:Transferring current research findings on the topic of learning and memory to "brain-based" learning in schools is of great interest among teachers. However, numerous international studies demonstrate that both pre-service and in-service teachers do not always succeed. Instead, they transfer numerous misconceptions about neuroscience, known as neuromyths, into pedagogical practice. As a result, researchers call for more neuroscience in teacher education in order to create a professional understanding of learning and memory. German pre-service science teachers specializing in biology complete neuroscientific modules (human biology/animal physiology) during their studies because they are expected to teach these topics to their students. Thus, they are required to demonstrate a certain degree of neuroscience literacy. In the present study, 550 pre-service science teachers were surveyed on neuromyths and scientific concepts about learning and memory. Pre-service science teachers' scientific concepts increased over the course of their training. However, beliefs in neuromyths were independent of participants' status within teacher education (first-year students, advanced students, and post-graduate trainees). The results showed that 10 neuromyths were endorsed by more than 50% of prospective science teachers. Beliefs in the existence of learning styles (93%) and the effectiveness of Brain Gym (92%) were most widespread. Many myths were endorsed even though a large share of respondents had thematically similar scientific concepts; endorsement of neuromyths was found to be largely independent of professional knowledge as well as theory-based and biography-based learning beliefs about neuroscience and learning. Our results suggest that neuromyths can exist in parallel to scientific concepts, professional knowledge and beliefs and are resistant to formal education. From the perspective of conceptual change theory, they thus exhibit characteristic traits of misconceptions that cannot simply be counteracted with increased neuroscientific knowledge. On the basis of our study's findings, it can be concluded that new teacher programs considering neuromyths as change-resistant misconceptions are needed to professionalize pre-service science teachers' neuroscience literacy. For this, an intensive web of exchange between the education field and neuroscientists is required, not just to deploy the latest scientific insights to refute neuromyths on learning and memory, but also to identify further neuromyths.
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Project description: Not available
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Project description:Professional development has been identified as an effective way to increase college STEM instructors' use of research-based instructional strategies (RBIS) known to benefit student learning and persistence in STEM. Yet only a few studies relate professional development experiences to later teaching behaviors of higher education instructors. This study of 361 undergraduate mathematics instructors, all of whom participated in multi-day, discipline-based workshops on teaching held in 2010-2019, examined the relationship between such participation and later use of RBIS. We found that instructors' RBIS attitudes, knowledge, and skills strengthened after participating in professional development, and their self-reported use of RBIS became more frequent in the first year after the workshop. Applying the Theory of Planned Behavior as a conceptual framework, we used a structural equation model to test whether this theory could explain the roles of workshop participation and other personal, professional and contextual factors in fostering RBIS use. Findings indicated that, along with workshop participation, prior RBIS experience, class size, and course coordination affected RBIS use. That is, both targeted professional development and elements of the local context for implementation were important in supporting instructors' uptake of RBIS-but, remarkably, both immediate and longer-term outcomes of professional development did not depend on other individual or institutional characteristics. In this study, the large sample size, longitudinal measurement approach, and consistency of the form and quality of professional development make it possible to distinguish the importance of multiple possible influences on instructors' uptake of RBIS. We discuss implications for professional development and for institutional structures that support instructors as they apply what they learned, and we offer suggestions for the use of theory in future research on this topic.
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Project description:INTRODUCTION:Calls for enabling 'critical thinking' are ubiquitous in health professional education. However, there is little agreement in the literature or in practice as to what this term means and efforts to generate a universal definition have found limited traction. Moreover, the variability observed might suggest that multiplicity has value that the quest for universal definitions has failed to capture. In this study, we sought to map the multiple conceptions of critical thinking in circulation in health professional education to understand the relationships and tensions between them. METHODS:We used an inductive, qualitative approach to explore conceptions of critical thinking with educators from four health professions: medicine, nursing, pharmacy, and social work. Four participants from each profession participated in two individual in-depth semi-structured interviews, the latter of which induced reflection on a visual depiction of results generated from the first set of interviews. RESULTS:Three main conceptions of critical thinking were identified: biomedical, humanist, and social justice-oriented critical thinking. 'Biomedical critical thinking' was the dominant conception. While each conception had distinct features, the particular conceptions of critical thinking espoused by individual participants were not stable within or between interviews. DISCUSSION:Multiple conceptions of critical thinking likely offer educators the ability to express diverse beliefs about what 'good thinking' means in variable contexts. The findings suggest that any single definition of critical thinking in the health professions will be inherently contentious and, we argue, should be. Such debates, when made visible to educators and trainees, can be highly productive.
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Project description:BackgroundBedside teaching is an important modality for training medical students and postgraduate trainees in clinical settings. Despite its significance, the effective practice of Bedside teaching has been declining over the past few decades. The literature highlighted the need for structured training, assessment, and certification or in other words entrustment of bedside teachers. The current study aims to develop and validate the Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) for bedside clinical teachers.MethodsA multi-method study with clinical teachers, medical educationists, and postgraduate medical students was conducted from July 2021-22. First, a nominal group using the jigsaw puzzle technique was conducted with 16 participants to identify EPAs. Then these EPAs were mapped and validated by the skills/competencies identified in the literature. Next, the EPAs were evaluated using the EQual rubric by 3 medical educationists. This was followed by two-rounds of modified Delphi to develop consensus among 90 participants in round-one and 69 in round-two. For qualitative data, a thematic analysis was conducted. For quantitative data, means and standard deviations were calculated.ResultsThe study identified five EPAs for bedside clinical teachers: developing bedside teaching program, planning bedside teaching session, conducting bedside teaching, conducting bedside assessments and evaluating bedside teaching.ConclusionsThis study comprehensively developed and validated a full description of EPAs for bedside clinical teachers. The EPAs identified in the study can serve as a guiding framework for bedside clinical teachers' training, assessment, and entrustment.
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Project description:We describe the development and validation of the Social-Emotional Teaching Practices Questionnaire-Chinese (SETP-C), a self-report instrument designed to gather information about Chinese preschool teachers' implementation of social-emotional practices. Initially (study 1), 262 items for the SETP-C were generated. Content validation of these items was conducted separately with Chinese practice experts, research experts, and preschool teachers. Significant revisions were made to items based on theoretical evidence and empirical findings from initial content validation activities, which led to a 70-item version of the SETP-C. In study 2, preliminary psychometric integrity evidence and item characteristics of the SETP-C were gathered based on the data from a sample of 1,599 Chinese preschool teacher respondents. Results from confirmatory factor analyses suggested a seven-factor measurement model, and high internal consistency score reliability was documented for each dimension of the SETP-C. Results of item response theory graded response models further indicated adequate psychometric properties at the item level.
| S-EPMC8460858 | biostudies-literature