A Case Study of Middle School Teachers’ Noticing During Modeling with Mathematics Tasks

Abstract

Schoenfeld (Mathematics teacher noticing: Seeing through teachers’ eyes. Routledge, New York, pp. 223–238, 2011) wondered about the transferability of teacher noticing across contexts (e.g., different grade levels and task types). This chapter focuses on middle school teachers’ noticing during instruction that promoted modeling with mathematics, which is one of eight Standards for Mathematical Practice (SMPs) found in the Common Core State Standards (CCSSI in Common Core State Standards for Mathematics. Author, Washington, DC, 2010). A case study approach was used to explore middle school teachers’ noticing during instruction promoting modeling with mathematics. This study focuses on two middle school teachers who enacted modeling-focused lessons. Lessons, videos, and interview data were analyzed using inductive analysis (Hatch in Doing qualitative research in education settings. State University of New York Press, Albany, NY, 2002). We drew two impressions from the data. The first was that teachers’ noticing focused on fostering students’ use of multiple representations. The second result was that teachers’ noticing was framed in ways to assist with making sense of a modeling task or its solution. We connect these results to transferability of teaching noticing, specifically to instruction promoting modeling with mathematics.