In‐service mathematics teachers’ video‐based noticing of 3D printing pens “in action”

Abstract

AbstractWe adopt five observation categories, namely classroom management, classroom environment, communication, mathematical content and tasks, to analyse four in‐service secondary mathematics teachers’ noticing upon watching video episodes showing an actual mathematics lesson that implemented 3D Printing Pens for teaching and learning shape and space. We use coding to analyse what the participants generally identified as important or noteworthy in the video. Moreover, we employ thematic analysis to delve deeper into the participants’ interpretations and decisions in relation to using 3D Pens for teaching and learning mathematics. Our findings have implications for teachers’ professional development in the area of technology integration especially in terms of their realisation of the affordances of novel‐to‐them technologies. We also report methodological and conceptual contributions towards teacher noticing. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic Various frameworks have been proposed for conceptualising teachers’ expertise in technology‐rich pedagogies; however, few have addressed teachers’ initial experience of adopting a novel‐to‐them technology in subject teaching. In teacher education, the method of video‐based noticing has been widely undertaken in the last two decades to help preservice and in‐service teachers visualise complex classroom situations and interpret classroom events. What this paper adds This study investigates what in‐service mathematics teachers find significant, the pedagogical considerations they make and their professional development in integrating technologies for teaching and learning mathematics. Particularly, video‐based noticing is used as a means for facilitating teachers’ professional growth through realising the affordances of 3D Printing Pens in mathematics education. Implications for practice and/or policy This study provides qualitative evidence that video‐based noticing was productive in facilitating teachers’ technological, pedagogical and content knowledge (TPACK), in particular, in realising the educational affordances of a novel‐to‐them technology. The videos captured the dynamic process of students’ drawing with 3D Pens “in action” rather than merely capturing their final products in a static manner, which facilitated the teachers’ reflections about the evolution of students’ mathematical thinking.