Examining the Relationship Between Preservice Elementary Teachers’ Attitudes Toward Mathematics and Professional Noticing Capacities

Abstract

The goal of this study was to examine the changes in preservice elementary teachers’ attitudes toward mathematics in connection with their participation in a module aimed at developing professional noticing capacities. This module, implemented in 11 mathematics methods courses at five institutions, involved practice with three interrelated components of professional noticing—attending, interpreting, and deciding. Pre- and post-assessments of participants’ mathematical attitudes and professional noticing capacities were administered to measure change in these areas. Professional noticing measures were modeled from a similar study by Jacobs et al. (Journal for Research in Mathematics Education 41: 169–202, 2010). The Attitudes Toward Mathematics Inventory (Tapia and Marsh, Academic Exchange Quarterly 8: 16–21, 2004) was used to measure change in attitudes during the pre- and post-administrations. Participants demonstrated significant growth in professional noticing capabilities and significant growth on three of four factors of the Attitudes Toward Mathematics Inventory; however, there was no significant correlation between the changes on the respective measures.