Abstract
Research around mathematics teachers’ professional noticing has been largely contextualised by the formal setting of the classroom. In addressing the lack of relevant studies in non-formal learning environments, this paper draws on student teachers’ observations within a Mathematics Fair, which was part of a mathematics methods module of a primary education undergraduate programme. Working in pairs, 64 student teachers designed interactive mathematical games which upper primary school pupils had the opportunity to play in an event having taken place at our university. In this study, we analyse student teachers’ individual reflective essays written after the Fair, where they discussed important, in their view, incidents and observations. Employing a thematic analysis approach, we identified four themes discussed by students: the task; learning; teaching; non-formal environment. We conclude with the implications for teacher education and suggestions for future research.
Highlights
In the last decade, a growing body of research has foregrounded teachers’ professional noticing as an important aspect of teacher professional learning
In the final sub-section, we turn our attention to the implications of our work in mathematics teacher education and provide some ideas on how future research could move forward before reiterating the contribution and significance of this study
The international mathematics education literature provides multiple examples of research programmes and activities aiming at developing pre- and in-service teachers’ professional noticing skills [10,18]
Summary
A growing body of research has foregrounded teachers’ professional noticing as an important aspect of teacher professional learning. This notion, according to Philipp et al [1], differs from constructs such as beliefs and knowledge in the sense that it is “an interactive, practice-based process rather than a category of cognitive resource” For mathematics education in particular, this default to the formal obscures the importance of contexts beyond the classroom—the actual contexts where mathematics come to life. Much research has focused on teachers’ noticing within the mathematics classroom; what teachers notice outside this setting is important to their growing understanding of mathematics pedagogy. We discuss the contribution of our work to initial teacher education, with particular reference to implications for mathematics teacher education and suggestions on how research in the field could be moved forward
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